First Financial Bank Trust Division Trims Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

First Financial Bank Trust Division cut its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.0% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,473 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 171 shares during the period. First Financial Bank Trust Division’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,615,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the first quarter worth about $28,000. Barrett & Company Inc. bought a new stake in Accenture during the 1st quarter valued at $29,000. Sageworth Trust Co lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 872.7% in the 1st quarter. Sageworth Trust Co now owns 107 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 96 shares during the period. Guardian Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the first quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, Elequin Securities LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $34,000. 70.42% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the topic of several research reports. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $306.00 to $358.00 in a report on Wednesday, June 14th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Accenture from $340.00 to $356.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Societe Generale boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $314.00 to $373.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 7th. Piper Jaffray Companies lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $316.00 to $314.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, June 23rd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $310.00 to $343.00 in a research report on Thursday, June 15th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $335.25.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,344 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $300.00, for a total value of $403,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 10,506 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,151,800. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,344 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $300.00, for a total transaction of $403,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 10,506 shares in the company, valued at $3,151,800. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Leonardo Framil sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $311.52, for a total value of $934,560.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 16,898 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,264,064.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 25,774 shares of company stock valued at $8,138,451. 0.08% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

Accenture stock opened at $313.91 on Thursday. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $242.80 and a fifty-two week high of $330.43. The company has a market cap of $208.64 billion, a PE ratio of 27.98, a PEG ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 1.22. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $315.93 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $295.33.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 22nd. The information technology services provider reported $3.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.96 by $0.23. The company had revenue of $16.56 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.49 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.28% and a return on equity of 30.47%. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.79 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 11.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Profile

Accenture plc, a professional services company, provides strategy and consulting, interactive, 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 comprises 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 comprises turnkey analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions; metaverse; and sustainability services.