King Luther Capital Management Corp Sells 19,017 Shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Key Points

• King Luther Capital Management Corp reduced its stake in Accenture PLC by 7.1%, selling 19,017 shares to hold a total of 250,672 shares valued at approximately $78.22 million.
• A number of analysts have recently updated their target prices for Accenture, with firms like Evercore ISI setting a target of $330.00 and JPMorgan raising it to $353.00.
• Accenture announced a quarterly dividend of $1.48 per share, which will be paid to shareholders on August 15th, and represents an annualized yield of 2.5%.

King Luther Capital Management Corp trimmed its position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 7.1% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 250,672 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 19,017 shares during the quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp's holdings in Accenture were worth $78,220,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth about $30,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $31,000. Capital A Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth about $34,000. Inlight Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the first quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Finally, Navigoe LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $37,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total transaction of $635,794.95. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 8,109 shares in the company, valued at $2,290,387.05. This trade represents a 21.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the insider owned 5,249 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,482,002.66. This trade represents a 3.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 2,954 shares of company stock valued at $834,280. Insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on ACN shares. Argus set a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Guggenheim reduced 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. Piper Sandler lowered 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. Finally, Evercore ISI initiated coverage on Accenture in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $330.00 target price on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given 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 company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $360.21.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN traded up $0.07 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $245.75. 2,681,005 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,529,380. The company has a market capitalization of $153.92 billion, a PE ratio of 19.55, a PEG ratio of 2.16 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. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $286.71 and a 200-day simple moving average of $313.39. Accenture PLC has a one year low of $236.67 and a one year high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $17.73 billion during 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 revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.13 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.4%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.13%.

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.