XML Financial LLC Decreases Holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

XML Financial LLC lessened its position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 2.3% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 3,343 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 79 shares during the quarter. XML Financial LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,043,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in Accenture by 16.8% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,325,526,000 after purchasing an additional 1,770,024 shares during the period. Alteri Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at about $321,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC grew its position in Accenture by 47.6% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,446 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $861,000 after acquiring an additional 789 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth $317,000. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 62.2% in the first quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 905 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $282,000 after acquiring an additional 347 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Barclays reduced their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $395.00 price objective (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $349.00 to $353.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, June 16th. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $374.00.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at $1,512,111.60. This trade represents a 3.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 9,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,806,442.95. This trade represents a 18.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE:ACN opened at $295.03 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $307.08 and a 200 day moving average price of $333.04. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Accenture PLC has a 12-month low of $273.19 and a 12-month high of $398.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $184.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.49, a P/E/G ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 1.33.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The firm had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.26 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.13 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.01%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 47.13%.

About Accenture

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.