State of Alaska Department of Revenue Reduces Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

State of Alaska Department of Revenue trimmed its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 6.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 71,242 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 5,014 shares during the period. State of Alaska Department of Revenue’s holdings in Accenture were worth $25,062,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in Accenture during the third quarter valued at $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at about $30,000. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $34,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 607.1% during the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Berbice Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $35,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Up 1.6 %

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $397.92 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $249.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.38, a PEG ratio of 3.43 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $360.63 and its 200-day moving average price is $351.08.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.27 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.49%. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 49.66%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction of $527,200.98. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at $3,278,431.38. The trade was a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 13,255 shares of company stock valued at $4,756,101 over the last ninety days. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. BNP Paribas downgraded Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price target for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.22.

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.