Generali Investments Towarzystwo Funduszy Inwestycyjnych Reduces Stock Holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Key Points

• Generali Investments Towarzystwo Funduszy Inwestycyjnych has decreased its holdings in Accenture PLC by 24.7%, selling 1,232 shares and now owning 3,750 shares valued at approximately $1,170,000.
• Accenture reported earnings of $3.49 per share for the latest quarter, exceeding analysts' expectations, with revenue reaching $17.73 billion, a 7.7% increase from the prior year.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $1.48 per share, with a dividend yield of 2.3%, to be paid on August 15th.

Generali Investments Towarzystwo Funduszy Inwestycyjnych trimmed its position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 24.7% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 3,750 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 1,232 shares during the quarter. Generali Investments Towarzystwo Funduszy Inwestycyjnych's holdings in Accenture were worth $1,170,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Brighton Jones LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 36.2% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 18,438 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $6,486,000 after purchasing an additional 4,905 shares during the period. Westpac Banking Corp raised its stake in Accenture by 8.0% during the 4th quarter. Westpac Banking Corp now owns 1,827 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $643,000 after acquiring an additional 136 shares in the last quarter. Arete Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 7.5% during the fourth quarter. Arete Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,882 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $662,000 after buying an additional 131 shares in the last quarter. KCM Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. KCM Investment Advisors LLC now owns 26,551 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $9,340,000 after purchasing an additional 174 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Aviva PLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 18.4% during the fourth quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 630,036 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $221,640,000 after purchasing an additional 97,722 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Piper Sandler dropped their target price on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. UBS Group reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $395.00 price target (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. HSBC assumed coverage on shares of Accenture in a research note on Monday, July 28th. They set a "reduce" rating and a $240.00 price target for the company. Finally, Argus set a $370.00 price objective on Accenture in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $360.21.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN traded down $6.48 on Thursday, hitting $241.06. 2,180,798 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,469,538. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $294.23 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $317.47. Accenture PLC has a 52 week low of $240.49 and a 52 week high of $398.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $150.98 billion, a PE ratio of 19.20, a P/E/G ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $17.26 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $3.13 EPS. Accenture's revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict 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 will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.5%. Accenture's payout ratio is presently 47.13%.

Insider Activity

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 shares were sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total transaction of $635,794.95. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 8,109 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,290,387.05. The trade was a 21.73% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the company's 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 directly owned 15,882 shares in the company, valued at $5,161,650. This represents a 13.60% 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 three months. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

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.