Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Acquired by Pictet Asset Management Holding SA

Pictet Asset Management Holding SA increased its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 10.8% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 549,438 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 53,593 shares during the period. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA’s holdings in Accenture were worth $193,287,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 6.5% in the fourth quarter. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA now owns 63,429 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $22,314,000 after acquiring an additional 3,883 shares in the last quarter. Davidson Trust Co. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 7.4% in the 4th quarter. Davidson Trust Co. now owns 2,307 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $812,000 after buying an additional 158 shares during the period. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 126.8% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC now owns 40,051 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $14,090,000 after buying an additional 22,391 shares in the last quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in Accenture by 37.5% in the fourth quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 3,094 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,088,000 after acquiring an additional 843 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SteelPeak Wealth LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 127.1% in the fourth quarter. SteelPeak Wealth LLC now owns 2,323 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $817,000 after acquiring an additional 1,300 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total transaction of $91,514.72. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 8,915 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,516,610.90. This trade represents a 2.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,497 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.48, for a total value of $885,136.56. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 28,866 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,232,419.68. This represents a 7.96 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 21,905 shares of company stock worth $8,181,753. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently issued reports on ACN. Wolfe Research raised shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. Mizuho decreased their target price on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $396.00 to $364.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $378.23.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $304.32 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $354.96 and its two-hundred day moving average is $355.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The firm has a market capitalization of $190.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.53, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.77 EPS. Analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.95%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

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.