Banque Pictet & Cie SA Sells 16,216 Shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Banque Pictet & Cie SA lessened its holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 35.3% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 29,735 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 16,216 shares during the quarter. Banque Pictet & Cie SA's holdings in Accenture were worth $9,279,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $31,000. Inlight Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the 1st quarter valued at $32,000. Capital A Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $34,000. Finally, Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $35,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Accenture Trading Down 2.5%

Accenture stock traded down $7.35 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $281.01. 5,075,765 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,920,596. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a current ratio of 1.46. Accenture PLC has a fifty-two week low of $273.19 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $176.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.37, a PEG ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 1.29. The firm's 50 day moving average is $309.00 and its 200-day moving average is $327.12.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.26 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.13 EPS. The company's revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.11%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.13%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Baird R W upgraded shares of Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. Guggenheim reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Finally, Piper Sandler reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $370.71.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total value of $812,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 15,882 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,161,650. This represents a 13.60% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.