HB Wealth Management LLC Grows Position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Key Points

• HB Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Accenture PLC by 6.9% during the first quarter, owning 133,414 shares valued at approximately $41.63 million.
• Accenture's CEO, Julie Spellman Sweet, sold 2,251 shares at an average price of $282.45, reducing her stake by 21.73% to 8,109 shares valued at about $2.29 million.
• The company reported a 7.7% increase in revenue year-over-year, totaling $17.73 billion, and exceeded earnings expectations with an EPS of $3.49 compared to a consensus of $3.32.

HB Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 6.9% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 133,414 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after buying an additional 8,583 shares during the quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $41,631,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 3,410,248 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in Accenture by 22.8% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $4,283,225,000 after buying an additional 2,260,740 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its holdings in Accenture by 16.8% in the 4th 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 acquiring an additional 1,770,024 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2,782.1% during the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,445,281 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $450,985,000 after acquiring an additional 1,395,135 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased 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 worth $2,667,393,000 after purchasing an additional 732,769 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Guggenheim dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. Benchmark reissued a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, June 20th. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed 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. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $360.21.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $57,315.02. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 5,249 shares in the company, valued at $1,482,002.66. This represents a 3.72% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was 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. The trade was a 13.60% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 5,454 shares of company stock worth $1,646,780. Insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN stock traded down $2.80 on Wednesday, hitting $276.10. 1,579,118 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,354,893. Accenture PLC has a 52 week low of $273.19 and a 52 week 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 firm has a market cap of $172.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.99, a PEG ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.29. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $300.93 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $321.07.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The business had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.26 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.13 EPS. The business's revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.14%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture's payout ratio is 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.