Wellington Management Group LLP Reduces Position in Accenture PLC $ACN

Wellington Management Group LLP decreased its holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 89.9% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 378,515 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 3,387,037 shares during the quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP owned 0.06% of Accenture worth $47,102,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Brighton Jones LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 36.2% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 18,438 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $6,486,000 after buying an additional 4,905 shares during the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 660 shares during the period. United Bank increased its position in Accenture by 49.8% during the second quarter. United Bank now owns 3,639 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,088,000 after acquiring an additional 1,209 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia increased its position 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 valued at $247,000 after acquiring an additional 155 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Main Street Financial Solutions LLC lifted its holdings 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 valued at $528,000 after acquiring an additional 72 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have issued reports on ACN. Weiss Ratings downgraded Accenture from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Mizuho reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $280.00 to $226.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Berenberg Bank decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $273.00 to $220.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, June 17th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $200.00 to $194.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 20th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their target price on Accenture from $253.00 to $175.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 22nd. 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.com, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $194.19.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $193.19 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. Accenture PLC has a 52 week low of $118.15 and a 52 week high of $291.09. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $160.77 and its 200-day simple moving average is $176.79. The company has a market capitalization of $129.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.43, a PEG ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.10.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Friday, June 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $18.78 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.49 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 13.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 9th were issued a $1.63 dividend. This represents a $6.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.4%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 9th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 52.08%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, June 23rd that permits the company to buyback $2.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 2.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 10,498 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the general counsel owned 17,735 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,890,450.30. This represents a 37.18% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed 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.

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.