Swedbank AB Sells 642,694 Shares of Accenture PLC $ACN

Key Points

• Swedbank AB recently reduced its stake in Accenture PLC by 22%, holding approximately $679.81 million in shares, making it the 22nd largest position in its portfolio.
• Accenture reported a quarterly earnings per share of $3.49, beating analysts' expectations, and recorded a 7.7% year-over-year revenue increase of $17.73 billion.
• Market analysts have mixed ratings on Accenture shares, with a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $338.88.

Swedbank AB decreased its holdings in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 22.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,274,460 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 642,694 shares during the quarter. Accenture makes up about 0.8% of Swedbank AB's holdings, making the stock its 22nd biggest position. Swedbank AB owned approximately 0.36% of Accenture worth $679,813,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Visionary Wealth Advisors grew its stake in Accenture by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. Visionary Wealth Advisors now owns 778 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $274,000 after buying an additional 26 shares during the last quarter. Viawealth LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. Viawealth LLC now owns 1,307 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $408,000 after buying an additional 33 shares during the last quarter. Aprio Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 2.1% in the 1st quarter. Aprio Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,640 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $512,000 after buying an additional 33 shares during the last quarter. First National Advisers LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. First National Advisers LLC now owns 9,420 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $2,939,000 after buying an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Finally, TCTC Holdings LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 14.5% in the 1st quarter. TCTC Holdings LLC now owns 269 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $84,000 after buying an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total transaction of $57,315.02. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 5,249 shares in the company, valued at $1,482,002.66. The trade was a 3.72% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total transaction of $141,170.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,283 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $644,582.22. This represents a 17.97% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 2,954 shares of company stock worth $834,280 in the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of Accenture stock traded down $0.13 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $239.57. 6,069,376 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,401,517. The company has a market cap of $150.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $256.92 and a 200 day simple moving average of $288.31. Accenture PLC has a fifty-two week low of $234.18 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on ACN shares. Susquehanna lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $330.00 to $270.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Accenture to a "moderate sell" rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. Evercore ISI initiated coverage on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, July 17th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $330.00 price target for the company. Argus set a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Finally, Benchmark reissued a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, June 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $335.61.

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.