Martingale Asset Management L P Trims Stake in Accenture PLC $ACN

Key Points

• Martingale Asset Management cut its Accenture stake by 28.2% in the fourth quarter, selling 17,543 shares and leaving it with 44,757 shares valued at about $12.0 million.
• Several other institutional investors increased their holdings, and 75.14% of Accenture’s stock is now owned by institutions.
• Analysts have become more cautious, with multiple firms trimming price targets; Accenture currently carries a Moderate Buy consensus and a target price of $259.89, while the stock recently traded near $169.95.

Martingale Asset Management L P reduced its position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 28.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 44,757 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 17,543 shares during the period. Martingale Asset Management L P's holdings in Accenture were worth $12,008,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. Weitz Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Accenture by 28.8% in the third quarter. Weitz Investment Management Inc. now owns 160,550 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $39,592,000 after acquiring an additional 35,900 shares in the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas grew its position in Accenture by 27.7% in the fourth quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 282,340 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $75,752,000 after acquiring an additional 61,314 shares in the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board grew its position in Accenture by 180.4% in the third quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 404,680 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $99,794,000 after acquiring an additional 260,357 shares in the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC grew its position in Accenture by 197.2% in the fourth quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 141,484 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $37,960,000 after acquiring an additional 93,880 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its position in Accenture by 36.6% in the fourth quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 557,516 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $149,582,000 after acquiring an additional 149,357 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the subject of several research reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $210.00 to $199.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Truist Financial lowered shares of Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and cut their price target for the company from $260.00 to $210.00 in a research report on Monday, June 1st. TD Cowen cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $282.00 to $258.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $300.00 to $270.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, Robert W. Baird cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $330.00 to $265.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 20th. Seventeen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $259.89.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $169.95 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $113.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $181.79 and a 200-day moving average price of $221.83. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Accenture PLC has a 12 month low of $155.82 and a 12 month high of $317.30.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.93 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.84 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $18.04 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.80 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.61% and a return on equity of 26.33%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.82 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 13.87 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 9th were paid a dividend of $1.63 per share. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 9th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is 53.40%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, CEO Atsushi Egawa sold 4,872 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.14, for a total transaction of $863,026.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 12,802 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,267,746.28. This represents a 27.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

About Accenture

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.

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