Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Retirement Systems of Alabama

Retirement Systems of Alabama cut its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.6% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 136,474 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 2,217 shares during the quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama’s holdings in Accenture were worth $48,241,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ACN. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 4.8% during the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 24,693 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $7,492,000 after acquiring an additional 1,142 shares in the last quarter. Brookstone Capital Management grew its position in Accenture by 64.1% in the second quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 19,606 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $6,384,000 after acquiring an additional 7,658 shares during the period. Gradient Investments LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 3.9% during the 2nd quarter. Gradient Investments LLC now owns 45,497 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $13,804,000 after purchasing an additional 1,723 shares in the last quarter. Raelipskie Partnership raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 16.8% in the second quarter. Raelipskie Partnership now owns 3,204 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $972,000 after buying an additional 460 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Everpar Advisors LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the second quarter valued at about $269,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on ACN. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Mizuho upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. BNP Paribas downgraded Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 target price for the company. in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $395.00 to $422.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $373.32.

Accenture Stock Down 0.1 %

NYSE:ACN traded down $0.21 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $359.97. 60,366 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,673,377. The stock has a market capitalization of $225.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.52, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $360.61 and its two-hundred day moving average is $334.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. Accenture’s revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.71 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.74 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a $1.48 dividend. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.64%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 51.79%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares in the company, valued at $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % 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, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total value of $170,948.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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. Insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661 in the last quarter. Corporate 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.