PNC Financial Services Group Inc. Reduces Stock Position in Accenture PLC $ACN

PNC Financial Services Group Inc. reduced its position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 2.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 810,153 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 19,134 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. owned 0.13% of Accenture worth $217,364,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Running Oak Capital LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 14.3% in the third quarter. Running Oak Capital LLC now owns 57,541 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $14,190,000 after buying an additional 7,190 shares during the period. Weitz Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings 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 period. Teacher Retirement System of Texas lifted its holdings 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 period. Public Sector Pension Investment Board lifted its holdings 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 period. Finally, Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC lifted its holdings 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 period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Atsushi Egawa sold 4,872 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.14, for a total value of $863,026.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 12,802 shares in the company, valued at $2,267,746.28. The trade was a 27.57% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on ACN. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $300.00 to $230.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 20th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $320.00 to $240.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $243.00 to $247.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, March 20th. Guggenheim lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $275.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 20th. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, March 17th. Seventeen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $274.50.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $176.47 on Wednesday. Accenture PLC has a twelve month low of $155.82 and a twelve month high of $322.86. The firm has a market cap of $117.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.45, a PEG ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a 50 day moving average of $188.93 and a 200 day moving average of $230.14. The company has a quick ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 9th were issued a $1.63 dividend. This represents a $6.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.7%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 9th. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 53.40%.

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.