Fidelity D & D Bancorp Inc. Sells 48 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Fidelity D & D Bancorp Inc. reduced its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 6.2% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 726 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 48 shares during the quarter. Fidelity D & D Bancorp Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $252,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of ACN. Valley National Advisers Inc. increased its stake in Accenture by 40.3% during the 3rd quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 167 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $51,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 25.8% during the 3rd quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 190 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $58,000 after acquiring an additional 39 shares during the last quarter. Morningstar Investment Services LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 23.4% during the 3rd quarter. Morningstar Investment Services LLC now owns 1,647 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $495,000 after acquiring an additional 312 shares during the last quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 9.5% during the 3rd quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC now owns 7,999 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,457,000 after acquiring an additional 693 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ancora Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC now owns 116,362 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $35,736,000 after acquiring an additional 1,136 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Piper Sandler Companies dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $320.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 17th. TD Cowen dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $294.00 to $293.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, June 21st. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $382.00 to $300.00 in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $350.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 17th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $352.74.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 4,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $316.00, for a total transaction of $1,422,000.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 42,781 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,518,796. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 4,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $316.00, for a total transaction of $1,422,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 42,781 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,518,796. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at $4,208,606.78. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 20,083 shares of company stock valued at $6,302,285 over the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN stock traded up $0.22 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $303.41. The company had a trading volume of 14,905,693 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,036,297. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $300.17 and its 200-day moving average price is $336.15. The company has a market capitalization of $203.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.80, a P/E/G ratio of 3.38 and a beta of 1.21.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.15 by ($0.02). Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. The company had revenue of $16.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.55 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.19 EPS. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 11th will be paid a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 47.25%.

Accenture Company 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.