Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management Raises Holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Key Points

• Empirical Financial Services LLC increased its stake in Accenture PLC by 38.5% during the first quarter, holding 12,723 shares valued at approximately $3.97 million.
• Insiders, including CEO Mauro Macchi and Julie Spellman Sweet, sold significant shares of Accenture on July 11th, with the CEO's ownership decreasing by 17.97% and 21.73% respectively.
• Accenture reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings with an EPS of $3.49 and revenue of $17.73 billion, showing a year-over-year revenue growth of 7.7%.

Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management increased its stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 38.5% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 12,723 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 3,536 shares during the period. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management's holdings in Accenture were worth $3,970,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 30,256.8% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,421,519 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,067,651,000 after buying an additional 3,410,248 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in Accenture by 16.8% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $4,325,526,000 after buying an additional 1,770,024 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Accenture by 2,782.1% in the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,445,281 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $450,985,000 after buying an additional 1,395,135 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 10.7% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,582,344 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $2,667,393,000 after purchasing an additional 732,769 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at about $225,217,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Accenture Stock Down 4.5%

Shares of NYSE ACN traded down $11.92 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $255.18. 6,041,752 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,530,415. The company has a market cap of $159.83 billion, a PE ratio of 20.32, a P/E/G ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 1.29. Accenture PLC has a one year low of $254.20 and a one year high of $398.35. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $297.98 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $319.53. 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 (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its 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. 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 quarterly revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.13 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business 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 dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.3%. Accenture's payout ratio is presently 47.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total value of $635,794.95. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 8,109 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,290,387.05. The trade was a 21.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 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 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. This represents a 3.72% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 5,454 shares of company stock worth $1,646,780 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on ACN. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft began coverage on Accenture in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. They set a "hold" rating and a $290.00 price target on the stock. Evercore ISI began coverage on Accenture in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $330.00 price target on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Accenture from $349.00 to $353.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, June 16th. Guggenheim lowered their price objective on Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. Finally, Benchmark restated a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, June 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $360.21.

Accenture 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.