Professional Advisory Services Inc. Sells 2,148 Shares of Accenture PLC $ACN

Key Points

• Professional Advisory Services Inc. has reduced its holdings in Accenture PLC by 3.2%, selling 2,148 shares and now owning 65,130 shares valued at approximately $19.5 million.
• Accenture reported an earnings per share of $3.49 for the last quarter, exceeding analyst expectations by $0.17 with revenues of $17.73 billion.
• Despite several institutional investors adjusting their positions, 75.14% of Accenture’s stock is still held by hedge funds and institutional investors, indicating strong institutional interest.

Professional Advisory Services Inc. cut its holdings in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 3.2% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 65,130 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 2,148 shares during the quarter. Accenture accounts for about 2.6% of Professional Advisory Services Inc.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 23rd largest holding. Professional Advisory Services Inc.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $19,467,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Accenture by 5.7% in 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 increased its position 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 valued at $2,793,889,000 after purchasing an additional 3,490,569 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its position 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 valued at $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 increased its position 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 valued at $1,923,225,000 after purchasing an additional 126,548 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position 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 valued at $1,600,470,000 after purchasing an additional 164,573 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have weighed in on ACN shares. Argus set a $370.00 price target on Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Mizuho set a $348.00 price objective on Accenture and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Benchmark reaffirmed a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, June 20th. Guggenheim dropped their price objective on Accenture from $335.00 to $305.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, September 17th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on Accenture from $325.00 to $271.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $329.52.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total transaction of $57,315.02. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 5,249 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,482,002.66. This represents a 3.72% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total value of $635,794.95. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 8,109 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,290,387.05. This trade represents a 21.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 2,954 shares of company stock valued at $834,280. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN traded down $5.59 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $234.40. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,817,679 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,685,149. The stock has a market capitalization of $146.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 1.30. Accenture PLC has a one year low of $234.10 and a one year high of $398.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $256.92 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $288.31.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.55% and a net margin of 11.61%.Accenture's quarterly revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.13 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Company 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.