Swiss National Bank Cuts Stock Holdings in Accenture PLC $ACN

Swiss National Bank lowered its stake in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 5.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,699,200 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 96,300 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank owned approximately 0.28% of Accenture worth $455,895,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. Jaffetilchin Investment Partners LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 4.2% during the fourth quarter. Jaffetilchin Investment Partners LLC now owns 878 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $236,000 after purchasing an additional 35 shares during the period. Clayton Financial Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 13.1% in the fourth quarter. Clayton Financial Group LLC now owns 329 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $88,000 after buying an additional 38 shares during the period. Holt Capital Advisors L.L.C. dba Holt Capital Partners L.P. increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.9% in the third quarter. Holt Capital Advisors L.L.C. dba Holt Capital Partners L.P. now owns 4,416 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,089,000 after buying an additional 41 shares during the period. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.2% in the second quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 3,751 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,108,000 after buying an additional 43 shares during the period. Finally, Peak Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Peak Asset Management LLC now owns 5,447 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,461,000 after buying an additional 43 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on ACN. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, March 17th. Mizuho decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $309.00 to $280.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 23rd. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday. Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $215.00 to $195.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 1st. Finally, Guggenheim cut their price target on Accenture from $250.00 to $225.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Seventeen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $259.89.

Accenture Trading Down 1.6%

NYSE ACN opened at $167.69 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $111.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.73, a PEG ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.08. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $182.33 and a 200 day simple moving average of $222.20. Accenture PLC has a 12 month low of $155.82 and a 12 month high of $318.62. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.93 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.84 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $18.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.80 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.33% and a net margin of 10.61%.Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.82 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 13.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 9th were given a $1.63 dividend. This represents a $6.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 9th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 53.40%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Atsushi Egawa sold 4,872 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 12,802 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,267,746.28. This trade represents a 27.57% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Company 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.