Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Lowers Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System lessened its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 4.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 33,600 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 1,700 shares during the period. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System's holdings in Accenture were worth $11,820,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of ACN. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 378.9% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,491,736 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,941,219,000 after buying an additional 4,345,039 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB raised its stake in Accenture by 47.5% in the fourth quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,763,690 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,324,029,000 after buying an additional 1,212,011 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in Accenture by 2,666.5% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 715,219 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $251,607,000 after buying an additional 689,366 shares in the last quarter. Holocene Advisors LP bought a new position in Accenture in the third quarter worth approximately $204,895,000. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 37,788.5% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 510,358 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $180,401,000 after buying an additional 509,011 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

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Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the 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 approximately $4,677,625.26. This represents a 42.58 % 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, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total transaction of $91,514.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 8,915 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,516,610.90. The trade was a 2.54 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE:ACN traded down $1.55 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $387.99. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,022,701 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,705,305. The business's fifty day moving average is $365.29 and its two-hundred day moving average is $354.11. The stock has a market cap of $242.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.55, a PEG ratio of 3.44 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 company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The company's revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.27 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th were given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.53%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.66%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on ACN shares. BNP Paribas downgraded Accenture from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $375.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wolfe Research raised Accenture from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $425.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. StockNews.com raised Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised Accenture from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their price target for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $387.22.

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.