Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Bought by California Public Employees Retirement System

California Public Employees Retirement System grew its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 5.4% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 1,828,325 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 93,040 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Accenture were worth $643,186,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of ACN. Public Sector Pension Investment Board increased its position in Accenture by 12.8% during the third quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 27,296 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $9,649,000 after buying an additional 3,100 shares in the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec increased its position in Accenture by 18.0% during the 3rd quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 489,830 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $173,145,000 after purchasing an additional 74,825 shares in the last quarter. Kolinsky Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter. Kolinsky Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,756 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $974,000 after purchasing an additional 59 shares during the last quarter. Encompass More Asset Management lifted its holdings in Accenture by 8.6% in the 3rd quarter. Encompass More Asset Management now owns 760 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $269,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tradition Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.3% during the third quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,951 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,871,000 after buying an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on ACN. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Baird R W upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Mizuho cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $378.23.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $304.32 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $190.61 billion, a PE ratio of 25.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $398.35. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $354.96 and its 200-day simple moving average is $356.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.77 EPS. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.95%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total value of $527,200.98. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,278,431.38. This trade represents a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total transaction of $3,468,574.71. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,677,625.26. The trade was a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 21,905 shares of company stock worth $8,181,753 over the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.