Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) Position Decreased by Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp

Key Points

• Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp reduced its holdings in Accenture PLC by 1.7%, now owning 445,180 shares valued at approximately $138.9 million.
• Several institutional investors significantly increased their stakes in Accenture, with GAMMA Investing LLC growing its ownership by an astounding 30,256.8% this quarter, accumulating over $1 billion in shares.
• Accenture reported strong quarterly results, beating expectations with an earnings per share of $3.49 and revenue of $17.73 billion, marking a 7.7% year-over-year increase.

Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp lessened its position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 1.7% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 445,180 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 7,561 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp owned approximately 0.07% of Accenture worth $138,914,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $30,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $31,000. Inlight Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the first quarter valued at about $32,000. Capital A Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $34,000. Finally, Navigoe LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $37,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Mizuho set a $348.00 target price on shares of Accenture and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Evercore ISI assumed coverage on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $330.00 target price for the company. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Benchmark reissued a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, June 20th. Finally, UBS Group reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $395.00 price objective (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $360.21.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN traded up $3.19 on Monday, reaching $258.56. 3,469,758 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,832,535. The firm has a market capitalization of $161.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.59, a PEG ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 1.29. Accenture PLC has a fifty-two week low of $254.20 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The business's 50-day moving average is $297.98 and its two-hundred day moving average is $319.10. The company has a quick ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates 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 net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The firm's revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.13 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

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 $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.3%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 47.13%.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total transaction 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total transaction 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 5,454 shares of company stock valued at $1,646,780. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Accenture Company 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.