Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH Lowers Stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH reduced its position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 2.4% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 624,886 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 15,317 shares during the period. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH owned about 0.10% of Accenture worth $194,989,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Brighton Jones LLC increased its position in Accenture by 36.2% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 18,438 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $6,486,000 after buying an additional 4,905 shares in the last quarter. Guardian Partners Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $594,000. Millstone Evans Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $37,000. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 99.5% during the fourth quarter. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,105 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $741,000 after purchasing an additional 1,050 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LPL Financial LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 11.3% in the fourth quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 592,510 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $208,449,000 after acquiring an additional 59,976 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have commented on ACN. Guggenheim reduced their price objective on Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. UBS Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $395.00 target price (up from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Accenture from $349.00 to $353.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, June 16th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft began coverage on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. They set a "hold" rating and a $290.00 target price on the stock. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $365.43.

Accenture Trading Down 1.5%

Shares of ACN traded down $4.39 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $281.65. 2,744,921 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,358,601. Accenture PLC has a fifty-two week low of $273.19 and a fifty-two 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. The business has a 50-day moving average of $304.11 and a 200-day moving average of $323.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $176.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 1.29.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share (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 during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $17.26 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.13 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed 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. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.10%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is 47.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,283 shares of the company's stock, valued at $644,582.22. The trade was a 17.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the business's 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 transaction, the insider directly owned 5,249 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,482,002.66. This represents a 3.72% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 5,454 shares of company stock worth $1,646,780. 0.02% of the stock is currently 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.