Banque Pictet & Cie SA Has $16.17 Million Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Banque Pictet & Cie SA lifted its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 48.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 45,951 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 15,054 shares during the period. Banque Pictet & Cie SA’s holdings in Accenture were worth $16,165,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Creative Planning raised its holdings in Accenture by 5.5% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 247,724 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $87,566,000 after buying an additional 12,993 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB increased its position in Accenture by 16.6% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,551,679 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $901,967,000 after acquiring an additional 363,401 shares during the period. Carderock Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 4.0% during the third quarter. Carderock Capital Management Inc. now owns 21,819 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $7,713,000 after acquiring an additional 834 shares during the last quarter. Town & Country Bank & Trust CO dba First Bankers Trust CO grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.6% in the third quarter. Town & Country Bank & Trust CO dba First Bankers Trust CO now owns 8,868 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,135,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bfsg LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 3.2% in the third quarter. Bfsg LLC now owns 18,521 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $6,547,000 after purchasing an additional 572 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $389.71 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $364.15 and its 200 day moving average is $353.43. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $398.35. The stock has a market cap of $243.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.69, a PEG ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.27 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.52%. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 49.66%.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total transaction of $3,468,574.71. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. This represents a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have commented on ACN shares. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. BNP Paribas lowered Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 target price for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Piper Sandler raised their target price on Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.22.

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.