Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Reduces Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board decreased its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 44.3% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 67,457 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 53,553 shares during the period. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board’s holdings in Accenture were worth $23,381,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Chilton Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 180.0% in the fourth quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 45 shares during the period. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. purchased a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Annapolis Financial Services LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 507.7% in the 1st quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 79 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Finally, Atwood & Palmer Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 214.8% in the first quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. now owns 85 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on ACN. Piper Sandler Companies cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $320.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 17th. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $382.00 to $300.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 26th. Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $395.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, May 24th. TD Cowen cut their target price on Accenture from $294.00 to $293.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 21st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $275.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $351.82.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN traded down $1.66 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $328.46. The company had a trading volume of 2,438,247 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,598,002. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $303.10 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $331.85. The stock has a market cap of $205.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.08, a PEG ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 1.23.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.15 by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $16.47 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.55 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.19 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 11th will be issued a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 11th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.57%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 47.25%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total value of $1,166,972.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,819 shares in the company, valued at $3,652,661.95. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total transaction of $472,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 38,570 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,149,550. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total transaction of $1,166,972.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 11,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,652,661.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 21,421 shares of company stock valued at $6,912,635 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.