Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by New York State Common Retirement Fund

New York State Common Retirement Fund lowered its position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 11.9% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 772,994 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 104,515 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned about 0.12% of Accenture worth $241,205,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at $2,351,683,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 30,256.8% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,421,519 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,067,651,000 after purchasing an additional 3,410,248 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in Accenture by 22.8% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $4,283,225,000 after purchasing an additional 2,260,740 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors grew its stake in 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 valued at $4,325,526,000 after purchasing an additional 1,770,024 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in Accenture by 10.7% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,582,344 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $2,667,393,000 after purchasing an additional 732,769 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total value of $635,794.95. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 8,109 shares in the company, valued at $2,290,387.05. This represents a 21.73% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $141,170.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,283 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $644,582.22. The trade was a 17.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 5,454 shares of company stock valued at $1,646,780 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN stock traded up $3.65 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $279.72. 3,176,294 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,927,450. The company has a quick ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The firm has a market cap of $175.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.27, a P/E/G ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 1.29. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $307.88 and a two-hundred day moving average of $326.01. Accenture PLC has a fifty-two week low of $273.19 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.12%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture's payout ratio is currently 47.13%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on ACN. UBS Group reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $395.00 price target (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Argus set a $370.00 target price on Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Piper Sandler dropped their target price on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Benchmark reiterated a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, June 20th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $370.71.

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.