Mizuho Securities USA LLC Reduces Stock Position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Key Points

• Mizuho Securities USA LLC reduced its holdings in Accenture PLC by 15.4%, selling 9,140 shares and bringing its total ownership to 50,082 shares, valued at approximately $15.6 million.
• Accenture reported earnings of $3.49 EPS for the last quarter, exceeding estimates, with revenues of $17.73 billion, marking a year-over-year increase of 7.7%.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $1.48 per share, effective August 15, 2023, reflecting an annualized dividend yield of 2.5%.

Mizuho Securities USA LLC trimmed its holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 15.4% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 50,082 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 9,140 shares during the period. Mizuho Securities USA LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $15,628,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $31,000. Capital A Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $34,000. Inlight Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 1st quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, Navigoe LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth $37,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on ACN shares. Mizuho set a $348.00 price objective on shares of Accenture and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Benchmark reissued a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, June 20th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. Finally, Guggenheim lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $360.21.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total transaction of $812,500.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 15,882 shares in the company, valued at $5,161,650. This trade represents a 13.60% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total transaction of $635,794.95. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 8,109 shares in the company, valued at $2,290,387.05. The trade was a 21.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 5,454 shares of company stock valued at $1,646,780 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture Stock Down 0.3%

Shares of NYSE:ACN traded down $0.72 during trading on Monday, reaching $238.48. 4,674,508 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,516,160. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $289.64 and a two-hundred day moving average of $314.40. Accenture PLC has a 52-week low of $236.96 and a 52-week high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a current ratio of 1.46. The stock has a market cap of $149.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.29.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders 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 2.5%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.13%.

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.