State of Tennessee Department of Treasury Boosts Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

State of Tennessee Department of Treasury boosted its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 8.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 230,011 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 17,220 shares during the period. State of Tennessee Department of Treasury's holdings in Accenture were worth $80,916,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA raised its position in shares of Accenture by 6.5% in the 4th quarter. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA now owns 63,429 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $22,314,000 after acquiring an additional 3,883 shares in the last quarter. Davidson Trust Co. raised its holdings in Accenture by 7.4% in the fourth quarter. Davidson Trust Co. now owns 2,307 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $812,000 after purchasing an additional 158 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 126.8% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC now owns 40,051 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $14,090,000 after buying an additional 22,391 shares during the period. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 37.5% in the 4th quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 3,094 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,088,000 after acquiring an additional 843 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SteelPeak Wealth LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 127.1% in the fourth quarter. SteelPeak Wealth LLC now owns 2,323 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $817,000 after purchasing an additional 1,300 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Robert W. Baird upgraded Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Mizuho decreased their price target on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. UBS Group dropped 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. Finally, StockNews.com cut Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $377.82.

Accenture Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of NYSE:ACN traded up $4.30 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $288.26. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,762,320 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,008,715. The stock has a market capitalization of $180.55 billion, a PE ratio of 24.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $275.01 and a 12 month high of $398.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $319.94 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $348.16.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.05%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is 48.89%.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total value of $91,514.72. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 8,915 shares in the company, valued at $3,516,610.90. This represents a 2.54 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 22,291 shares of company stock worth $7,880,886. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.