California Public Employees Retirement System Lowers Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

California Public Employees Retirement System lessened its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 4.9% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 1,225,897 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 63,035 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Accenture were worth $430,180,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Chilton Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 180.0% during the 4th quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. BluePath Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Halpern Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $50,000. Finally, Valley National Advisers Inc. lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 40.3% during the 3rd quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 167 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $51,000 after buying an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on ACN shares. Guggenheim began coverage on Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $425.00 target price on the stock. Bank of America increased their price objective on Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. TD Cowen reduced their price objective on Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Finally, Redburn Atlantic increased their price objective on Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.00.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 3,010 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.80, for a total value of $1,119,118.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,193 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,417,957.40. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.81, for a total transaction of $1,859,050.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 20,316 shares in the company, valued at $7,553,691.96. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 3,010 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.80, for a total value of $1,119,118.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,193 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,417,957.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 39,833 shares of company stock worth $13,645,871. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Accenture Trading Up 0.2 %

Accenture stock traded up $0.71 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $317.59. 2,433,300 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,391,084. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $355.21 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $342.31. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $261.68 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The firm has a market cap of $213.02 billion, a PE ratio of 28.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 1.19.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.11. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.85 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.69 EPS. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be paid a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.62%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 46.78%.

About Accenture

Accenture plc, a professional services company, provides strategy and consulting, industry X, song, and technology and operation services worldwide. The company offers application services, including agile transformation, DevOps, application modernization, enterprise architecture, software and quality engineering, data management; intelligent automation comprising robotic process automation, natural language processing, and virtual agents; and application management services, as well as software engineering services; strategy and consulting services; data and analytics strategy, data discovery and augmentation, data management and beyond, data democratization, and industrialized solutions comprising turnkey analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions; metaverse; and sustainability services.