Kentucky Retirement Systems Reduces Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Kentucky Retirement Systems decreased its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 7.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 43,637 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 3,742 shares during the period. Kentucky Retirement Systems' holdings in Accenture were worth $15,425,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Accenture by 2.0% in the third quarter. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,447 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $511,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. BSW Wealth Partners raised its position in Accenture by 0.7% during the third quarter. BSW Wealth Partners now owns 4,077 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,441,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Slow Capital Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Slow Capital Inc. now owns 9,067 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $3,205,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 5,206 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,840,000 after buying an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Conscious Wealth Investments LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Conscious Wealth Investments LLC now owns 7,744 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $2,870,000 after buying an additional 31 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total transaction of $1,899,689.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,825 shares of the company's stock, valued at $14,490,266.50. The trade was a 11.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661. Insiders own 0.07% of the company's stock.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE:ACN traded down $8.50 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $353.57. 3,624,539 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,730,625. The company has a market cap of $221.04 billion, a PE ratio of 30.93, a P/E/G ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $355.55 and a 200 day moving average price of $327.08.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.71 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture announced that its board has approved a share repurchase plan 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 reacquire up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually an indication that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.67%. This is an increase from Accenture's previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is 51.79%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on ACN. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Piper Sandler raised Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and raised their price objective for the company from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. UBS Group increased their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased 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. Finally, TD Cowen upgraded shares of Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their target price for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a report on Monday, September 30th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $368.23.

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.