Deutsche Bank AG Trims Stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Key Points

• Deutsche Bank AG has reduced its holdings in Accenture PLC by 11.4%, selling 405,095 shares and owning approximately 3.14 million shares worth $978.8 million as per its latest filing.
• Accenture reported earnings of $3.49 per share for the last quarter, exceeding estimates and showing a 7.7% increase in revenue compared to the previous year.
• The company will pay a quarterly dividend of $1.48 on August 15th, leading to an annualized dividend yield of 2.4%.

Deutsche Bank AG decreased its position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 11.4% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 3,136,787 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 405,095 shares during the period. Deutsche Bank AG owned 0.50% of Accenture worth $978,803,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Lipe & Dalton increased its stake in Accenture by 2,087.4% in the 1st quarter. Lipe & Dalton now owns 5,031 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,570,000 after buying an additional 4,801 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 16.8% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,325,526,000 after purchasing an additional 1,770,024 shares during the last quarter. Alteri Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $321,000. United Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 1st quarter worth approximately $758,000. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 62.2% during the 1st quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 905 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $282,000 after purchasing an additional 347 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief operating officer owned 15,882 shares in the company, valued at $5,161,650. This trade represents a 13.60% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at $644,582.22. The trade was 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 in the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on ACN. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Piper Sandler decreased their price target 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. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft began coverage on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. They set a "hold" rating and a $290.00 price target for the company. Finally, Guggenheim reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. One equities research 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $360.21.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE:ACN traded down $2.65 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $239.07. The company had a trading volume of 3,810,701 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,579,456. The company has a market capitalization of $149.74 billion, a PE ratio of 19.03, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a quick ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Accenture PLC has a 52-week low of $238.03 and a 52-week high of $398.35. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $291.16 and its 200-day moving average price is $315.89.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. The company had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.55% and a net margin of 11.61%. Accenture's revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.13 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect 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. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.5%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.13%.

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.