DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale Reduces Stock Holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale lowered its holdings in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 1.3% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 1,680,610 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 22,383 shares during the period. Accenture accounts for approximately 1.0% of DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale's holdings, making the stock its 15th largest position. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale owned about 0.27% of Accenture worth $507,064,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Visionary Wealth Advisors increased its stake in Accenture by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. Visionary Wealth Advisors now owns 778 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $274,000 after buying an additional 26 shares during the period. Vivaldi Capital Management LP increased its stake in Accenture by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Vivaldi Capital Management LP now owns 782 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $292,000 after buying an additional 27 shares during the period. Nemes Rush Group LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 7.5% in the 4th quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 418 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $147,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the period. Tradition Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,981 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $3,863,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the period. Finally, Sentinus LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 4.2% in the 4th quarter. Sentinus LLC now owns 763 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $268,000 after buying an additional 31 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN traded up $2.73 on Tuesday, hitting $303.27. The company had a trading volume of 2,889,749 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,900,528. The company has a market capitalization of $189.95 billion, a PE ratio of 24.15, a PEG ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 1.29. The company's fifty day moving average price is $309.69 and its 200-day moving average price is $328.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.46. Accenture PLC has a 12-month low of $273.19 and a 12-month high of $398.35.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.95%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture's payout ratio is 47.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 9,965 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,806,442.95. This represents a 18.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total transaction of $812,500.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 15,882 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,161,650. The trade was a 13.60% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366 over the last three months. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the subject of several research reports. Mizuho set a $348.00 target price on Accenture and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Benchmark reiterated a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, June 20th. UBS Group reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $395.00 target price (up from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $370.71.

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.