Iyo Bank Ltd. Acquires 10,800 Shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Key Points

• Iyo Bank Ltd. increased its stake in Accenture PLC by 72.3% in Q1, raising its total to 25,738 shares worth approximately $8 million.
• Accenture reported earnings of $3.49 per share, exceeding estimates and marking a 7.7% increase in revenue year-over-year.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $1.48 per share, with an annualized yield of 2.5%, scheduled for payment on August 15th.

Iyo Bank Ltd. increased its position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 72.3% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 25,738 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 10,800 shares during the quarter. Accenture accounts for about 2.6% of Iyo Bank Ltd.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 15th largest holding. Iyo Bank Ltd.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $8,031,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $31,000. Capital A Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $34,000. Inlight Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the first quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, Navigoe LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $37,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Barclays lowered their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 23rd. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 23rd. UBS Group reissued a "buy" rating and set a $395.00 price target (up from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Argus set a $370.00 target price on Accenture in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $360.21.

Accenture Stock Up 0.2%

Shares of Accenture stock traded up $0.39 during trading on Thursday, hitting $246.07. 4,927,905 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,544,575. The stock has a market cap of $154.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.59, a PEG ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a current ratio of 1.46. Accenture PLC has a twelve month low of $236.67 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $286.71 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $313.39.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.4%. Accenture's payout ratio is currently 47.13%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total transaction of $141,170.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,283 shares of the company's stock, valued at $644,582.22. This represents a 17.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $57,315.02. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 5,249 shares in the company, valued at $1,482,002.66. The trade was a 3.72% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 2,954 shares of company stock valued at $834,280. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.