Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG Invests $799,000 in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG purchased a new position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 2,562 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $799,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in ACN. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 62.2% during the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Finally, Promus Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Accenture stock opened at $311.37 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $195.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $305.50 and a 200-day simple moving average of $335.40. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $275.01 and a 12-month high of $398.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.77 EPS. Accenture's revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th were paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.90%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the subject of several research reports. Piper Sandler dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Guggenheim decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, UBS Group reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $395.00 price target (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $382.15.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. The trade was a 3.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 9,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,806,442.95. This represents a 18.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366 in the last ninety days. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Accenture

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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