Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky

Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky trimmed its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 67,908 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 984 shares during the quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky’s holdings in Accenture were worth $23,889,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,394,657 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $21,246,236,000 after acquiring an additional 392,183 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Accenture by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,528,348 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,750,021,000 after purchasing an additional 136,665 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 16.8% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,325,526,000 after buying an additional 1,770,024 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 22.8% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,283,225,000 after buying an additional 2,260,740 shares during the period. Finally, Capital International Investors lifted its stake in Accenture by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 8,513,140 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,994,922,000 after acquiring an additional 181,449 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total value of $3,468,574.71. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares in the company, valued at $4,677,625.26. This trade represents a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 23,778 shares of company stock valued at $8,408,087. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Accenture Trading Down 1.0 %

ACN opened at $282.28 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $275.01 and a 52 week high of $398.35. The business’s 50 day moving average is $326.22 and its two-hundred day moving average is $349.60. The firm has a market cap of $176.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.77 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.10%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 48.89%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on ACN. StockNews.com lowered shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. Barclays cut their price objective on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Wolfe Research upgraded Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 target price for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Mizuho cut their price target on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $377.82.

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.