LGT Fund Management Co Ltd. Grows Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

LGT Fund Management Co Ltd. lifted its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 9.7% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 7,377 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 653 shares during the quarter. LGT Fund Management Co Ltd.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,238,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at $26,000. Annapolis Financial Services LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 507.7% in the first quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 79 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 66 shares during the period. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new stake in Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at $28,000. Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth $29,000. Finally, Atwood & Palmer Inc. increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 214.8% during the first quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. now owns 85 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $341.71 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $214.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.29, a PEG ratio of 3.60 and a beta of 1.24. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $324.42 and a 200-day simple moving average of $323.84. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.15 by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $16.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.55 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. The firm’s revenue was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.19 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 11th were issued a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.51%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.25%.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total value of $1,649,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at $2,964,751.98. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total transaction of $1,649,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total value of $2,696,402.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 22,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,564,161.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 21,421 shares of company stock valued at $6,912,635. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have issued reports on ACN. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $409.00 to $295.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $330.00 to $376.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Piper Sandler Companies reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $320.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 17th. Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $395.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, May 24th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $382.00 to $300.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 26th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $353.41.

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.