AXS Investments LLC Trims Stock Position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Key Points

• AXS Investments LLC reduced its stake in Accenture PLC by 27.3%, holding 12,479 shares worth approximately $3.89 million.
• Accenture reported earnings of $3.49 EPS for the last quarter, surpassing estimates and showing a 7.7% increase in revenue year-over-year.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $1.48 per share, yielding 2.4%, with a payout ratio of 47.13%.

AXS Investments LLC lessened its stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 27.3% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 12,479 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 4,684 shares during the quarter. Accenture makes up about 1.1% of AXS Investments LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 19th biggest holding. AXS Investments LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $3,894,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 36.2% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 18,438 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $6,486,000 after purchasing an additional 4,905 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in Accenture by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,286,005 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $804,194,000 after purchasing an additional 43,217 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth $317,000. Abacus FCF Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 81.1% during the 4th quarter. Abacus FCF Advisors LLC now owns 40,585 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $14,277,000 after purchasing an additional 18,180 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sand Hill Global Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Sand Hill Global Advisors LLC now owns 19,742 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $6,945,000 after purchasing an additional 128 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on ACN. Benchmark reissued a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, June 20th. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. HSBC began coverage on shares of Accenture in a research report on Monday, July 28th. They set a "reduce" rating and a $240.00 price target on the stock. Mizuho set a $348.00 price target on shares of Accenture and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Finally, Argus set a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $360.21.

Accenture Trading Down 1.1%

NYSE:ACN traded down $2.65 on Friday, reaching $239.07. 3,810,701 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,579,456. The company has a quick ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $149.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 1.29. The business has a fifty day moving average of $292.71 and a 200-day moving average of $316.70. Accenture PLC has a 52-week low of $238.03 and a 52-week high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its 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. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The firm had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.13 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity

In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total value of $812,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 15,882 shares in the company, valued at $5,161,650. The trade was a 13.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 5,454 shares of company stock worth $1,646,780 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.02% 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.