Hoxton Planning & Management LLC Acquires 87 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Hoxton Planning & Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 4.9% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,851 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 87 shares during the quarter. Hoxton Planning & Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $642,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. DLK Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 4.3% in the first quarter. DLK Investment Management LLC now owns 7,462 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,586,000 after buying an additional 306 shares in the last quarter. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the first quarter worth $217,000. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 9.4% during the first quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 21,243 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $7,363,000 after purchasing an additional 1,831 shares during the period. West Coast Financial LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 0.3% during the first quarter. West Coast Financial LLC now owns 33,917 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $11,756,000 after buying an additional 95 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Factory Mutual Insurance Co. bought a new position in Accenture during the first quarter worth $14,072,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $382.00 to $300.00 in a research note on Wednesday. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $372.00 to $345.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 16th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $275.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, April 27th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $375.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, June 21st. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $352.74.

Accenture Stock Performance

Accenture stock traded down $2.06 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $305.11. 1,250,902 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,802,897. The company’s fifty day moving average is $300.89 and its 200-day moving average is $336.88. The firm has a market cap of $204.65 billion, a PE ratio of 28.13, a PEG ratio of 3.42 and a beta of 1.21. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.15 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $16.47 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.55 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. The business’s revenue was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.19 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 11.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 11th will be issued a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.25%.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.91, for a total value of $1,974,437.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 161,581 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $51,045,053.71. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.91, for a total value of $1,974,437.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 161,581 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $51,045,053.71. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 20,083 shares of company stock valued at $6,302,285 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Profile

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.