Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Bought by New Mexico Educational Retirement Board

New Mexico Educational Retirement Board raised its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 11.9% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 36,750 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 3,900 shares during the period. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board’s holdings in Accenture were worth $12,393,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth $2,061,490,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main grew its stake in Accenture by 100.0% during the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 1,751,531 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $614,615,000 after buying an additional 875,723 shares during the last quarter. Winslow Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth $288,168,000. Generation Investment Management LLP bought a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth $286,220,000. Finally, Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado acquired a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth $263,421,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total value of $1,369,747.96. Following the sale, the general counsel now owns 30,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,705,516.24. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,208,606.78. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 20,083 shares of company stock valued at $6,302,285 over the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have issued reports on ACN shares. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on Accenture from $379.00 to $320.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 17th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on Accenture from $375.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, June 21st. Citigroup cut their price objective on Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on Accenture in a report on Monday, June 24th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $335.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on Accenture from $340.00 to $275.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, June 5th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $352.74.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN traded up $0.22 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $303.41. 14,905,693 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,036,297. The firm has a market capitalization of $203.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.78, a P/E/G ratio of 3.38 and a beta of 1.21. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $300.17 and its 200 day simple moving average is $336.10.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.15 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $16.47 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.55 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.19 EPS. Research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 11.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 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 1.70%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.25%.

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.