Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG Has $436,000 Stake in Accenture PLC $ACN

Key Points

• Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG has decreased its stake in Accenture PLC by 43.0%, now holding 1,460 shares worth $436,000.
• Institutional investors own 75.14% of Accenture's stock, with significant increases from firms like Vanguard and Price T Rowe Associates.
• Accenture has announced an increase in its quarterly dividend to $1.63, representing a 2.7% annual yield, boosted from the previous $1.48.

Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG decreased its position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 43.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,460 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 1,102 shares during the quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG's holdings in Accenture were worth $436,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in 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 buying an additional 3,419,577 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 63.9% during the first 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 during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 3.5% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 6,766,369 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $2,111,378,000 after purchasing an additional 228,939 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.1% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 6,163,393 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,923,225,000 after purchasing an additional 126,548 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 3.3% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,129,053 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,600,470,000 after purchasing an additional 164,573 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the topic of several recent research reports. Susquehanna cut their target price on Accenture from $330.00 to $270.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, September 18th. Hsbc Global Res raised Accenture to a "moderate sell" rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Evercore ISI set a $280.00 price objective on Accenture in a research note on Thursday. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $330.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $301.91.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $57,315.02. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 5,249 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,482,002.66. This represents a 3.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total value 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 $2,290,387.05. The trade was a 21.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 2,954 shares of company stock worth $834,280 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture Stock Up 3.0%

ACN stock opened at $239.43 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a current ratio of 1.42. Accenture PLC has a fifty-two week low of $229.40 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $253.43 and its 200 day simple moving average is $286.28. The company has a market cap of $149.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 1.29.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.98 by $0.05. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.45% and a net margin of 11.02%.The company had revenue of $17.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.34 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.66 earnings per share. Accenture's revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Investors of record on Friday, October 10th will be issued a $1.63 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 10th. This represents a $6.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.7%. This is a boost from Accenture's previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 47.13%.

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.

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