Forsta AP Fonden Sells 4,100 Shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Key Points

• Forsta AP Fonden reduced its stake in Accenture PLC by 2.5%, now owning 159,729 shares valued at approximately $49.84 million.
• Recent insider sales include CEO Mauro Macchi selling 500 shares and COO John F. Walsh selling 2,500 shares, resulting in decreases of 17.97% and 13.60% in their ownership, respectively.
• Accenture recently reported a strong quarterly performance with earnings per share of $3.49, exceeding estimates by $0.17, and a revenue of $17.73 billion, up 7.7% year-over-year.

Forsta AP Fonden cut its position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 2.5% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 159,729 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 4,100 shares during the quarter. Forsta AP Fonden's holdings in Accenture were worth $49,842,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Accenture by 5.7% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 63,814,234 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $19,912,594,000 after purchasing an additional 3,419,577 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 30,256.8% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,421,519 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,067,651,000 after purchasing an additional 3,410,248 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position in Accenture by 16.8% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $4,325,526,000 after purchasing an additional 1,770,024 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Accenture by 2,782.1% during the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,445,281 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $450,985,000 after purchasing an additional 1,395,135 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in Accenture by 10.7% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,582,344 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $2,667,393,000 after purchasing an additional 732,769 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. HSBC initiated coverage on Accenture in a research report on Monday, July 28th. They issued a "reduce" rating and a $240.00 price objective for the company. Argus set a $370.00 price objective on Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft assumed coverage on Accenture in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. They issued a "hold" rating and a $290.00 price objective for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $360.21.

Accenture Stock Down 1.1%

ACN stock traded down $2.65 during trading on Friday, reaching $239.07. 3,810,701 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,579,456. The firm's 50 day moving average is $291.16 and its 200 day moving average is $315.60. Accenture PLC has a twelve month low of $238.03 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The firm has a market cap of $149.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.29.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.55% and a net margin of 11.61%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.13 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.5%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is 47.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $57,315.02. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 5,249 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,482,002.66. This represents a 3.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total value of $812,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 15,882 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,161,650. This trade represents a 13.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 5,454 shares of company stock valued at $1,646,780. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.