Hancock Whitney Corp Has $2.46 Million Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Hancock Whitney Corp lowered its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 13.1% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 8,097 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 1,219 shares during the quarter. Hancock Whitney Corp’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,457,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 212,025 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $64,331,000 after buying an additional 531 shares during the last quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. lifted its stake in Accenture by 11.8% in the second quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 240,679 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $73,024,000 after acquiring an additional 25,342 shares during the last quarter. Transatlantique Private Wealth LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 9.9% in the 2nd quarter. Transatlantique Private Wealth LLC now owns 4,802 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,438,000 after acquiring an additional 433 shares during the period. Boston Research & Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 3.4% in the 2nd quarter. Boston Research & Management Inc. now owns 18,402 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $5,583,000 after purchasing an additional 608 shares during the period. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Accenture by 5.5% in the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 51,835 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $15,727,000 after purchasing an additional 2,695 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have issued reports on ACN shares. UBS Group upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 19th. Susquehanna dropped their price target on Accenture from $360.00 to $350.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 21st. Morgan Stanley cut shares of Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $382.00 to $300.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 26th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Finally, Mizuho upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $356.41.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN opened at $336.22 on Friday. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The firm has a market cap of $210.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.82 and a beta of 1.24. The business’s fifty day moving average is $332.01 and its 200-day moving average is $322.06.

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 net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. The firm had revenue of $16.47 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.55 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.19 earnings per share. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 12th. The shares were 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 directly owns 40,070 shares in the company, valued at $12,390,445.40. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total value of $1,649,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,964,751.98. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total value of $927,660.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 40,070 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,390,445.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.