Accenture PLC $ACN Shares Sold by Dimensional Fund Advisors LP

Key Points

• Dimensional Fund Advisors LP reduced its stake in Accenture PLC by 0.2%, owning 2,207,019 shares worth approximately $688.5 million after selling 4,484 shares in Q1.
• CEO Mauro Macchi and CEO Julie Spellman Sweet both sold shares, reducing their ownership by 17.97% and 21.73%, respectively.
• Accenture reported a quarterly earnings per share of $3.49, exceeding analysts' expectations, with a revenue of $17.73 billion, showing a 7.7% increase from the previous year.

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lessened its position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 0.2% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,207,019 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 4,484 shares during the quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP owned approximately 0.35% of Accenture worth $688,474,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Horizon Investments LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 5.1% during the 1st quarter. Horizon Investments LLC now owns 15,636 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,855,000 after purchasing an additional 763 shares during the last quarter. Azimuth Capital Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 1.7% in the 1st quarter. Azimuth Capital Investment Management LLC now owns 30,529 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $9,526,000 after purchasing an additional 520 shares during the period. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 16.3% during the 1st quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC now owns 80,411 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $25,092,000 after acquiring an additional 11,278 shares during the period. Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 17.3% during the 1st quarter. Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. now owns 3,006 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $938,000 after acquiring an additional 444 shares during the period. Finally, Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 87.4% during the 1st quarter. Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. now owns 16,484 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $5,144,000 after acquiring an additional 7,688 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 23rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft started coverage on Accenture in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. They set a "hold" rating and a $290.00 target price on the stock. Argus set a $370.00 price target on Accenture in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Evercore ISI started coverage on Accenture in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $330.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $360.21.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of the business'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 directly owned 2,283 shares in the company, valued at $644,582.22. The trade was a 17.97% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on 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 approximately $1,482,002.66. The trade was a 3.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 2,954 shares of company stock worth $834,280. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN traded up $0.88 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $247.04. The company had a trading volume of 4,223,359 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,755,595. Accenture PLC has a 12-month low of $236.67 and a 12-month high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.46. The company has a market cap of $154.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.67, a PEG ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a fifty day moving average of $283.92 and a two-hundred day moving average of $310.68.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $17.26 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.13 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th were issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date was 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%.

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.