Fifth Third Bancorp Sells 91,539 Shares of Accenture PLC $ACN

Fifth Third Bancorp cut its holdings in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 27.3% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 244,039 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 91,539 shares during the quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp’s holdings in Accenture were worth $48,390,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth about $2,146,995,000. Voloridge Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $311,694,000. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 15.9% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 8,173,338 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,192,907,000 after purchasing an additional 1,122,855 shares during the last quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 84.0% in the 1st quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 2,405,683 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $477,023,000 after purchasing an additional 1,097,961 shares during the period. Finally, FIL Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 33.5% in the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 3,921,049 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,052,017,000 after purchasing an additional 983,840 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the subject of several research reports. Evercore set a $180.00 price objective on Accenture in a report on Thursday, June 18th. TD Cowen lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $258.00 to $150.00 in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. Wolfe Research reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $200.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, June 16th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on Accenture from $315.00 to $270.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, Mizuho lowered their price objective on Accenture from $280.00 to $226.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 23rd. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $193.19.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, CEO Atsushi Egawa sold 4,872 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.14, for a total transaction of $863,026.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 12,802 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,267,746.28. The trade was a 27.57% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Accenture Stock Down 0.0%

Accenture stock opened at $135.19 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $160.28 and a 200 day simple moving average of $203.47. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. Accenture PLC has a 1-year low of $118.15 and a 1-year high of $291.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $90.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.80, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.13.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 18th. The information technology services provider reported $3.80 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.70 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $18.72 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $18.78 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.47% and a net margin of 10.66%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.49 earnings per share. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.780-13.900 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 13.85 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 9th will be paid a $1.63 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 9th. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.8%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 52.08%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase plan on Tuesday, June 23rd that permits the company to buyback $2.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 2.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Profile

Accenture is a global professional services company that provides a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. The firm works with organizations across industries to design and implement business transformation programs, deploy and manage enterprise technology, optimize operations, and develop customer and digital experiences. Its offerings encompass management and technology consulting, systems integration, application and infrastructure services, cloud migration and managed services, as well as security and analytics capabilities.

The company delivers industry- and function-specific solutions, combining consulting expertise with proprietary tools, platforms and partnerships with major technology vendors.