South Dakota Investment Council Lowers Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

South Dakota Investment Council cut its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 16,657 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 600 shares during the period. South Dakota Investment Council’s holdings in Accenture were worth $5,860,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in Accenture during the third quarter worth $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. boosted its holdings in Accenture by 62.2% during the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture during the third quarter worth $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC raised its position in Accenture by 64.2% during the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the period. Finally, Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $34,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on ACN shares. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Robert W. Baird reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $370.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. BNP Paribas cut shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.22.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,497 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.48, for a total value of $885,136.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 28,866 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,232,419.68. This trade represents a 7.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction 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 approximately $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Accenture Trading Down 5.3 %

Shares of ACN stock opened at $364.35 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The firm has a market cap of $228.00 billion, a PE ratio of 30.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.41 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a 50-day moving average of $367.48 and a two-hundred day moving average of $356.38. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.27 earnings per share. Accenture’s revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

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.