Fifth Third Bancorp Purchases 59,914 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Fifth Third Bancorp lifted its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 18.7% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 380,720 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 59,914 shares during the period. Fifth Third Bancorp owned about 0.06% of Accenture worth $118,800,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth approximately $2,351,683,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 30,256.8% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,421,519 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,067,651,000 after purchasing an additional 3,410,248 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 22.8% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,283,225,000 after purchasing an additional 2,260,740 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth approximately $666,495,000. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 16.8% during the fourth 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 period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $372.00 to $340.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Mizuho dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $380.62.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN traded down $1.20 on Thursday, hitting $318.02. 2,192,507 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,958,129. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $304.23 and a two-hundred day moving average of $336.42. The company has a market cap of $199.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.68, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $275.01 and a 1-year high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.77 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.86%. Accenture's payout ratio is presently 48.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 15,882 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,161,650. This represents a 13.60% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. This trade represents a 3.05% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

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.