New York State Teachers Retirement System Sells 47,543 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

New York State Teachers Retirement System trimmed its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 7.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 565,146 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 47,543 shares during the quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System owned 0.09% of Accenture worth $199,768,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of ACN. Edge Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter valued at approximately $1,492,000. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the third quarter worth about $577,000. Avitas Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Avitas Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,945 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,748,000 after buying an additional 68 shares in the last quarter. Childress Capital Advisors LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 9.2% in the 3rd quarter. Childress Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,679 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $594,000 after acquiring an additional 142 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jacobsen Capital Management increased its position in shares of Accenture by 41.5% during the third quarter. Jacobsen Capital Management now owns 935 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $331,000 after acquiring an additional 274 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total transaction of $2,945,801.52. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 12,188 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,412,909.16. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total transaction of $2,945,801.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 12,188 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,412,909.16. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $369.97, for a total transaction of $1,757,357.50. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 22,976 shares in the company, valued at $8,500,430.72. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 33,107 shares of company stock valued at $12,275,914 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the company. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Susquehanna upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Mizuho raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Finally, TD Cowen raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $368.23.

Accenture Trading Down 2.2 %

Shares of NYSE ACN traded down $7.89 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $355.15. The company had a trading volume of 584,128 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,711,262. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $351.54 and its 200 day simple moving average is $323.52. The stock has a market cap of $222.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.28, a P/E/G ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The firm had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.71 earnings per share. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture announced that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s payout ratio is 51.79%.

Accenture Company 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.