Gulf International Bank UK Ltd Lowers Stock Position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Key Points

• Gulf International Bank UK Ltd reduced its holdings in Accenture PLC by 25.8% in Q1, now owning 35,919 shares valued at $11.2 million.
• Accenture recently announced a quarterly dividend of $1.48 per share, reflecting a 2.5% annual yield and a payout ratio of 47.13%.
• Accenture's stock has an average price target of $360.21 with mixed ratings from analysts, as well as strong Q2 earnings performance exceeding expectations.

Gulf International Bank UK Ltd cut its stake in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 25.8% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 35,919 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 12,466 shares during the quarter. Gulf International Bank UK Ltd's holdings in Accenture were worth $11,208,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Lipe & Dalton grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2,087.4% during the 1st quarter. Lipe & Dalton now owns 5,031 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,570,000 after purchasing an additional 4,801 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors grew its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 1,770,024 shares during the last quarter. Alteri Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $321,000. United Bank bought a new stake in Accenture during the 1st quarter worth approximately $758,000. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC grew its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 347 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total value of $635,794.95. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 8,109 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,290,387.05. This represents a 21.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total transaction of $141,170.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,283 shares in the company, valued at approximately $644,582.22. The trade was a 17.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 2,954 shares of company stock worth $834,280 over the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the topic of a number of research reports. Benchmark reissued a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, June 20th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 23rd. Argus set a $370.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Guggenheim reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 23rd. Finally, Mizuho set a $348.00 price objective on shares of Accenture and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $360.21.

Accenture Stock Up 0.4%

Shares of ACN stock traded up $0.88 on Friday, hitting $247.04. The stock had a trading volume of 4,223,359 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,548,958. The business has a 50 day moving average of $285.33 and a 200 day moving average of $312.52. The stock has a market cap of $154.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.46. Accenture PLC has a 12-month low of $236.67 and a 12-month high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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. The company had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.13 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.