Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky lessened its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 1.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 67,908 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 984 shares during the period. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky's holdings in Accenture were worth $23,889,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC raised its holdings in Accenture by 50.5% in the fourth quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 39,746 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $13,982,000 after buying an additional 13,342 shares during the period. Transatlantique Private Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Transatlantique Private Wealth LLC now owns 4,951 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,742,000 after acquiring an additional 150 shares in the last quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Accenture by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,981 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $3,863,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the period. Seaview Investment Managers LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth about $391,000. Finally, MML Investors Services LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 135,197 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $47,561,000 after buying an additional 2,356 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
ACN has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Guggenheim decreased their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $377.82.
View Our Latest Analysis on ACN
Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture
In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 9,965 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,806,442.95. The trade was a 18.65 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 15,041 shares of company stock valued at $5,254,956 in the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.
Accenture Stock Performance
Shares of NYSE:ACN traded up $2.22 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $293.63. The stock had a trading volume of 2,918,853 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,004,927. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $275.01 and a 1-year high of $398.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $183.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.63, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $318.01 and its 200 day simple moving average is $347.71. 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 - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 in the previous year, the business earned $2.77 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Accenture Announces Dividend
The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.02%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.89%.
Accenture Profile
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Free Report)
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.
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