Alaska Permanent Fund Corp Purchases 2,713 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Alaska Permanent Fund Corp boosted its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 65.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,845 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,713 shares during the period. Alaska Permanent Fund Corp’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,402,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $63,000. Cumberland Partners Ltd lifted its position in Accenture by 6.1% during the 4th quarter. Cumberland Partners Ltd now owns 64,012 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $20,791,000 after acquiring an additional 3,652 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth about $1,241,000. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth about $310,000. Finally, Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. raised its holdings in Accenture by 16.6% in the fourth quarter. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,117 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $392,000 after buying an additional 159 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $375.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, Guggenheim started coverage on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $425.00 target price on the stock. 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, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.81, for a total value of $1,859,050.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly 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 at the SEC website. In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.83, for a total transaction of $1,611,139.39. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 34,795 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,937,824.85. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.81, for a total transaction of $1,859,050.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 20,316 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,553,691.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 39,833 shares of company stock worth $13,645,871 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN stock traded down $6.56 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $306.98. 640,921 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,383,627. Accenture plc has a one year low of $261.68 and a one year high of $387.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $205.90 billion, a PE ratio of 28.43, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 1.19. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $352.14 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $342.20.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.11. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. The business had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.85 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.69 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be given a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 46.78%.

Accenture Profile

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.