Evelyn Partners Investment Management LLP Sells 22,601 Shares of Accenture PLC $ACN

Evelyn Partners Investment Management LLP cut its holdings in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 45.6% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 26,929 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 22,601 shares during the period. Evelyn Partners Investment Management LLP’s holdings in Accenture were worth $7,225,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 36.2% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 18,438 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $6,486,000 after acquiring an additional 4,905 shares in the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 46.9% during the second quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,066 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $618,000 after acquiring an additional 660 shares in the last quarter. United Bank lifted its holdings in Accenture by 49.8% during the second quarter. United Bank now owns 3,639 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,088,000 after acquiring an additional 1,209 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia lifted its holdings in Accenture by 23.0% during the second quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 828 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $247,000 after acquiring an additional 155 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Main Street Financial Solutions LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 4.2% during the second quarter. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC now owns 1,767 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $528,000 after acquiring an additional 72 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have issued reports on ACN shares. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on Accenture from $275.00 to $248.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, June 4th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on Accenture from $330.00 to $265.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on Accenture from $300.00 to $270.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, HSBC dropped their price target on Accenture from $220.00 to $210.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 14th. Seventeen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $259.89.

Accenture Stock Up 1.4%

ACN stock opened at $169.95 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $181.79 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $221.83. The company has a market cap of $113.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.92, a P/E/G ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 1.08. Accenture PLC has a twelve month low of $155.82 and a twelve month high of $317.30.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 return on equity of 26.33% and a net margin of 10.61%.The business’s revenue 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 13.84 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, CEO Atsushi Egawa sold 4,872 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $2,267,746.28. The trade was a 27.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.