Andra AP fonden Sells 53,269 Shares of Accenture PLC $ACN

Andra AP fonden lowered its position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 28.1% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 136,608 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 53,269 shares during the period. Andra AP fonden’s holdings in Accenture were worth $36,652,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Weitz Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 28.8% during the 3rd quarter. Weitz Investment Management Inc. now owns 160,550 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $39,592,000 after buying an additional 35,900 shares during the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 27.7% during the 4th quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 282,340 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $75,752,000 after buying an additional 61,314 shares during the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 180.4% during the 3rd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 404,680 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $99,794,000 after buying an additional 260,357 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 197.2% during the 4th quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 141,484 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $37,960,000 after buying an additional 93,880 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 36.6% during the 4th quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 557,516 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $149,582,000 after buying an additional 149,357 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Mizuho reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $309.00 to $280.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 23rd. Piper Sandler set a $282.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $320.00 to $240.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 16th. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, March 17th. Finally, Truist Financial downgraded shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their target price for the company from $260.00 to $210.00 in a research note on Monday, June 1st. Seventeen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to 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%

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $167.69 on Friday. Accenture PLC has a 52-week low of $155.82 and a 52-week high of $318.62. The company has a market capitalization of $111.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $182.33 and a 200 day simple moving average of $222.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 1.34.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Friday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.84 by $0.09. Accenture had a net margin of 10.61% and a return on equity of 26.33%. The business had revenue of $18.04 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.80 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.82 EPS. Accenture’s revenue was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 13.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

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

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.