Selective Wealth Management Inc. Trims Position in Accenture PLC $ACN

Key Points

• Selective Wealth Management Inc. significantly reduced its stake in Accenture PLC by 51.5%, holding 2,495 shares worth approximately $742,000 after selling 2,646 shares in the second quarter.
• Accenture reported a strong quarterly performance, with earnings per share of $3.49, exceeding estimates, alongside a revenue increase of 7.7% year-over-year to $17.73 billion.
• A number of analysts have recently downgraded their price targets for Accenture, with Rothschild & Co Redburn setting a new target at $250.00, reflecting varied market opinions about the stock's future performance.

Selective Wealth Management Inc. trimmed its stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 51.5% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,495 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 2,646 shares during the period. Selective Wealth Management Inc.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $742,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 63.9% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,953,621 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $2,793,889,000 after purchasing an additional 3,490,569 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 5.7% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 63,814,234 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $19,912,594,000 after purchasing an additional 3,419,577 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 30,256.8% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,421,519 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,067,651,000 after purchasing an additional 3,410,248 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Accenture by 2,782.1% in the 1st quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,445,281 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $450,985,000 after acquiring an additional 1,395,135 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH bought a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $225,217,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total transaction of $635,794.95. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 8,109 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,290,387.05. This represents a 21.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total transaction of $57,315.02. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 5,249 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,482,002.66. This represents a 3.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 2,954 shares of company stock valued at $834,280. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Rothschild & Co Redburn raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $250.00 to $255.00 in a research report on Friday. TD Cowen decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $342.00 to $313.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, September 9th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. Benchmark reiterated a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, June 20th. Finally, Evercore ISI assumed coverage on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, July 17th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $330.00 price target for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $329.52.

Accenture Stock Down 0.8%

Shares of NYSE ACN traded down $1.97 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $238.02. The stock had a trading volume of 1,701,152 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,673,262. Accenture PLC has a 52 week low of $234.18 and a 52 week high of $398.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The business's 50 day moving average is $256.92 and its 200-day moving average is $288.31. The company has a market cap of $149.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.93, a PEG ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 1.30.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The business had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.26 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.13 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture 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.