Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky Lowers Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky decreased its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 4.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 68,892 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 3,113 shares during the period. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky's holdings in Accenture were worth $24,351,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. lifted its position in Accenture by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,447 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $511,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. BSW Wealth Partners boosted its holdings in Accenture by 0.7% in the third quarter. BSW Wealth Partners now owns 4,077 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,441,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Slow Capital Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.3% during the third quarter. Slow Capital Inc. now owns 9,067 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $3,205,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 0.3% in the third quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,951 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $3,871,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the period. Finally, NBC Securities Inc. increased its position in Accenture by 0.6% in the third quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 5,206 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,840,000 after buying an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on ACN shares. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Accenture from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their price target for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Guggenheim boosted their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. TD Cowen raised Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Susquehanna lifted their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $372.09.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN stock traded up $0.94 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $363.84. 1,518,990 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,687,631. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $227.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.98, a P/E/G ratio of 3.22 and a beta of 1.24. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $360.48 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $333.86.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. The firm had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The firm's revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.71 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.63%. This is an increase from Accenture's previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 51.79%.

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

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total transaction of $170,948.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,649,265.25. The trade was a 4.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company's stock.

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.