LGT Fund Management Co Ltd. Boosts Position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Key Points

• LGT Fund Management Co Ltd. increased its stake in Accenture PLC by 22.9%, holding a total of 11,669 shares valued at approximately $3.64 million.
• Insiders, including the CEO, have recently sold shares of Accenture, with significant decreases in their ownership following the transactions.
• Accenture reported quarterly earnings of $3.49 per share, surpassing expectations and demonstrating a 7.7% year-over-year revenue growth.

LGT Fund Management Co Ltd. boosted its stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 22.9% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 11,669 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 2,172 shares during the quarter. LGT Fund Management Co Ltd.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $3,641,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. Inlight Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 1st quarter valued at about $32,000. Capital A Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. Finally, Navigoe LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $37,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the company. BMO Capital Markets dropped 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. Evercore ISI initiated coverage on Accenture in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $330.00 price target on the stock. HSBC initiated coverage on Accenture in a research note on Monday, July 28th. They issued a "reduce" rating and a $240.00 price target on the stock. Barclays decreased their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft initiated coverage on Accenture in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. They issued a "hold" rating and a $290.00 price target on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $360.21.

Accenture Stock Up 0.2%

ACN stock traded up $0.39 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $246.07. The stock had a trading volume of 4,927,905 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,684,021. The firm has a market cap of $154.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.29. The business has a 50-day moving average of $285.33 and a two-hundred day moving average of $312.52. Accenture PLC has a 52-week low of $236.67 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.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. The company had revenue of $17.73 billion for 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%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.13 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture's payout ratio is 47.13%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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 stock was 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. The trade was a 21.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $141,170.00. Following the transaction, 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. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 2,954 shares of company stock valued at $834,280. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.