Pictet Asset Management Holding SA Raises Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Pictet Asset Management Holding SA raised its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 10.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 549,438 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 53,593 shares during the quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA owned 0.09% of Accenture worth $193,287,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. lifted its position in Accenture by 62.2% during the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth about $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 64.2% during the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total value of $527,200.98. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,278,431.38. This represents a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,497 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.48, for a total transaction of $885,136.56. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 28,866 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,232,419.68. This represents a 7.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. Guggenheim reduced their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 17th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Piper Sandler dropped their target price on Accenture from $396.00 to $364.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Mizuho reduced their price target on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. 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 MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $378.23.

Accenture Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $304.32 on Friday. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The stock has a market cap of $190.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.53, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $354.96 and its 200-day simple moving average is $355.97.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.95%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.89%.

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.