Sit Investment Associates Inc. Has $16.44 Million Stock Holdings in Accenture PLC $ACN

Sit Investment Associates Inc. cut its holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 12.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 61,272 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 8,741 shares during the quarter. Sit Investment Associates Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $16,439,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Brighton Jones LLC increased its position in Accenture by 36.2% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 18,438 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $6,486,000 after purchasing an additional 4,905 shares during the period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC increased its position in Accenture by 46.9% in the second quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,066 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $618,000 after purchasing an additional 660 shares during the period. United Bank increased its position in Accenture by 49.8% in the second quarter. United Bank now owns 3,639 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,088,000 after purchasing an additional 1,209 shares during the period. Bank of Nova Scotia increased its position in Accenture by 23.0% in the second quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 828 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $247,000 after purchasing an additional 155 shares during the period. Finally, Main Street Financial Solutions LLC increased its position in Accenture by 4.2% in 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 purchasing an additional 72 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 recently commented on the company. HSBC lowered their price objective on Accenture from $220.00 to $210.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 14th. TD Cowen decreased their target price on Accenture from $282.00 to $258.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Oppenheimer set a $201.00 target price on Accenture in a research report on Monday. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their target price on Accenture from $295.00 to $253.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 20th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on Accenture from $315.00 to $270.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Seventeen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $259.89.

Accenture Trading Down 1.6%

NYSE:ACN opened at $167.69 on Friday. Accenture PLC has a fifty-two week low of $155.82 and a fifty-two week high of $318.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 1.34. The stock has a market capitalization of $111.59 billion, a PE ratio of 13.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.08. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $182.33 and its 200-day simple moving average is $222.20.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.84 by $0.09. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.33% and a net margin of 10.61%.The business had revenue of $18.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.80 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.82 EPS. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 13.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 9th were issued a dividend of $1.63 per share. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.9%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 9th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 53.40%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CEO Atsushi Egawa sold 4,872 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated 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 $2,267,746.28. The trade was a 27.57% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Accenture 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.