Chesley Taft & Associates LLC Trims Stock Position in Accenture PLC $ACN

Chesley Taft & Associates LLC decreased its position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 7.9% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 90,271 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 7,790 shares during the period. Chesley Taft & Associates LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $11,233,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Teacher Retirement System of Texas boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 27.7% during the fourth quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 282,340 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $75,752,000 after purchasing an additional 61,314 shares in the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC raised its stake 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 in the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lifted its holdings in Accenture by 36.6% during 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 period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Accenture by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 66,070,930 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $17,726,831,000 after acquiring an additional 854,361 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 12.0% in the 4th quarter. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd now owns 335,314 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $89,965,000 after acquiring an additional 36,037 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Up 2.6%

Accenture stock opened at $175.49 on Friday. Accenture PLC has a 1-year low of $118.15 and a 1-year high of $291.09. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $151.64 and a 200-day moving average price of $187.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 1.34. The stock has a market capitalization of $117.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.02, a PEG ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.09.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, June 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.80 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.70 by $0.10. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.47% and a net margin of 10.66%.The company had revenue of $18.72 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $18.78 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.49 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 13.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Tuesday, June 23rd that permits the company to repurchase $2.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the information technology services provider to purchase up to 2.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 9th will be paid a $1.63 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 9th. This represents a $6.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.7%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 52.08%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 10,498 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.98, for a total transaction of $1,710,964.04. Following the sale, the general counsel owned 17,735 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,890,450.30. The trade was a 37.18% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at 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.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price objective on Accenture from $253.00 to $175.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. Weiss Ratings lowered Accenture from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $315.00 to $270.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $177.00 to $130.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 22nd. Finally, Mizuho cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $280.00 to $226.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $192.96.

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.