Norges Bank Acquires New Stake in Accenture PLC $ACN

Key Points

• Norges Bank disclosed a new stake in Accenture, buying 8,002,218 shares valued at about $2.15 billion and ending the quarter with roughly 1.3% ownership.
• Accenture posted better-than-expected quarterly results, with EPS of $2.93 topping estimates and revenue of $18.04 billion beating forecasts; revenue also rose 7.8% year over year.
• Wall Street remains broadly positive, with analysts assigning a Moderate Buy consensus and an average target price of $274.50, even as several firms trimmed their price targets.

Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 8,002,218 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $2,146,995,000. Norges Bank owned about 1.30% of Accenture at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 66,070,930 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $17,726,831,000 after acquiring an additional 854,361 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 0.4% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 28,135,065 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $6,938,156,000 after acquiring an additional 118,460 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 41.1% during the third quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 17,128,134 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,223,839,000 after acquiring an additional 4,984,930 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,656,436 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $3,922,212,000 after acquiring an additional 218,719 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 5.4% during the fourth quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 10,693,994 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $2,869,199,000 after acquiring an additional 546,198 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Mizuho dropped their target price on Accenture from $309.00 to $280.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Accenture from $243.00 to $247.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, March 20th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Accenture from $320.00 to $240.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 16th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on Accenture from $300.00 to $230.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 20th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price objective on Accenture from $280.00 to $230.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 6th. Seventeen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Accenture currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $274.50.

Accenture Trading Up 5.0%

Shares of ACN stock opened at $187.32 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 1.34. Accenture PLC has a 52-week low of $155.82 and a 52-week high of $321.77. The company has a market capitalization of $124.65 billion, a PE ratio of 15.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.08. The business's fifty day moving average is $185.71 and its 200 day moving average is $226.50.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 9th were paid a $1.63 dividend. This represents a $6.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 9th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is currently 53.40%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Atsushi Egawa sold 4,872 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.14, for a total value of $863,026.08. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 12,802 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,267,746.28. This represents a 27.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Company Profile

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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