Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund Sells 4,259 Shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund decreased its position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 18.9% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 18,254 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 4,259 shares during the quarter. Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund's holdings in Accenture were worth $5,696,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 16.8% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,325,526,000 after acquiring an additional 1,770,024 shares during the last quarter. Alteri Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth about $321,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 47.6% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,446 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $861,000 after acquiring an additional 789 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth about $317,000. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 62.2% in the first quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 905 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $282,000 after acquiring an additional 347 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total transaction of $1,003,982.14. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 17,237 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,857,041.86. This represents a 17.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total value of $643,242.92. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 9,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,806,442.95. This represents a 18.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366 over the last three months. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the subject of a number of research reports. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Monday. Guggenheim dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Monday. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their price objective on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, Mizuho lowered their price objective on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $374.00.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN traded up $9.66 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $295.03. 5,449,311 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,940,172. Accenture PLC has a 52 week low of $273.19 and a 52 week high of $398.35. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $306.98 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $333.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $184.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.48.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The company's revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.13 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.01%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.13%.

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.