Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators Has $728,000 Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators grew its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.3% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,400 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 76 shares during the quarter. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators’ holdings in Accenture were worth $728,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $2,061,490,000. Swedbank AB bought a new position in Accenture in the 1st quarter valued at about $820,912,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main boosted its stake in Accenture by 100.0% during the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 1,751,531 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $614,615,000 after purchasing an additional 875,723 shares during the last quarter. Winslow Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $288,168,000. Finally, Generation Investment Management LLP bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $286,220,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total transaction of $2,696,402.25. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 22,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,564,161.45. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total transaction of $2,696,402.25. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 22,849 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,564,161.45. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total transaction of $927,660.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 40,070 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,390,445.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 21,421 shares of company stock valued at $6,912,635. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on ACN shares. Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on Accenture from $372.00 to $345.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 16th. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and set a $395.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, May 24th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $275.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on Accenture in a research note on Monday, June 24th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $335.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $409.00 to $295.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 15th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $352.33.

Accenture Stock Down 0.3 %

ACN traded down $0.98 on Thursday, hitting $343.01. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 90,693 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,782,118. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $322.15 and its 200-day simple moving average is $324.67. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51. The firm has a market cap of $214.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.81 and a beta of 1.24.

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). Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. The firm had revenue of $16.47 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.55 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.19 EPS. The business’s revenue was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 11th were issued a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.50%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 47.25%.

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.