Banco BTG Pactual S.A. Takes Position in Accenture PLC $ACN

Banco BTG Pactual S.A. bought a new stake in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 7,400 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,985,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Weitz Investment Management Inc. lifted 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 buying an additional 35,900 shares during the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas lifted 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 buying an additional 61,314 shares during the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board lifted 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 buying an additional 260,357 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC lifted 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 buying an additional 93,880 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lifted 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 buying an additional 149,357 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. Oppenheimer set a $201.00 price target on Accenture in a research report on Monday. Truist Financial downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $260.00 to $210.00 in a research report on Monday, June 1st. TD Cowen lowered their price target on Accenture from $282.00 to $258.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Guggenheim decreased their target price on Accenture from $250.00 to $225.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Piper Sandler set a $282.00 target price on Accenture in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. Seventeen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $259.89.

Accenture Stock Down 1.6%

NYSE:ACN opened at $167.69 on Friday. Accenture PLC has a twelve month low of $155.82 and a twelve month high of $318.62. The company has a market cap of $111.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.08. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $182.33 and a 200-day simple moving average of $222.20. 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 (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Friday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.84 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $18.04 billion during 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 business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.82 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 13.87 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.9%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 53.40%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

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