University of Texas Texas AM Investment Management Co. decreased its stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 86.2% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 447 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 2,787 shares during the period. University of Texas Texas AM Investment Management Co.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $139,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Visionary Wealth Advisors lifted its position in Accenture by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. Visionary Wealth Advisors now owns 778 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $274,000 after purchasing an additional 26 shares during the last quarter. Vivaldi Capital Management LP raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Vivaldi Capital Management LP now owns 782 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $292,000 after buying an additional 27 shares during the last quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 7.5% during the 4th quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 418 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $147,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,981 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $3,863,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sentinus LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Sentinus LLC now owns 763 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $268,000 after acquiring an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.
Accenture Stock Down 1.7%
Shares of Accenture stock traded down $4.63 on Thursday, hitting $269.37. 2,017,146 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,364,046. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $300.06 and a 200 day moving average price of $320.74. The company has a quick ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Accenture PLC has a 12-month low of $266.52 and a 12-month high of $398.35. The company has a market cap of $168.72 billion, a PE ratio of 21.45, a PEG ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 1.29.
Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. The company had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.13 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.
Accenture Announces Dividend
The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is currently 47.13%.
Insider Activity
In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total transaction of $635,794.95. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 8,109 shares in the company, valued at $2,290,387.05. This represents a 21.73% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $57,315.02. Following the sale, the insider owned 5,249 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,482,002.66. The trade was a 3.72% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 5,454 shares of company stock valued at $1,646,780 over the last three months. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.
Analyst Ratings Changes
A number of analysts have commented on ACN shares. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. Guggenheim dropped their target price on Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 23rd. Evercore ISI assumed coverage on Accenture in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $330.00 price objective on the stock. Benchmark reiterated a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, June 20th. Finally, Mizuho set a $348.00 price target on shares of Accenture and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $360.21.
Check Out Our Latest Report on ACN
About Accenture
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Free Report)
Accenture plc, a professional services company, provides strategy and consulting, industry X, song, and technology and operation services worldwide. The company offers application services, including agile transformation, DevOps, application modernization, enterprise architecture, software and quality engineering, data management; intelligent automation comprising robotic process automation, natural language processing, and virtual agents; and application management services, as well as software engineering services; strategy and consulting services; data and analytics strategy, data discovery and augmentation, data management and beyond, data democratization, and industrialized solutions comprising turnkey analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions; metaverse; and sustainability services.
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