Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Sells 18,872 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio cut its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 6.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 286,694 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 18,872 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio's holdings in Accenture were worth $100,856,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Atomi Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 23.4% during the 4th quarter. Atomi Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,841 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $999,000 after acquiring an additional 539 shares during the period. Beaumont Financial Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 86.1% during the fourth quarter. Beaumont Financial Advisors LLC now owns 1,788 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $629,000 after purchasing an additional 827 shares during the period. Advisory Alpha LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 15.8% during the fourth quarter. Advisory Alpha LLC now owns 1,537 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $541,000 after purchasing an additional 210 shares in the last quarter. Phillips Wealth Planners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 7.9% in the 4th quarter. Phillips Wealth Planners LLC now owns 3,404 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,191,000 after buying an additional 249 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC now owns 297,999 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $104,833,000 after buying an additional 4,524 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 5,364 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 17,237 shares in the company, valued at $4,857,041.86. This represents a 17.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $395.00 price objective (up from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday. Mizuho reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, Piper Sandler decreased their price target on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $382.14.

Accenture Trading Down 2.2%

ACN traded down $6.94 during trading on Friday, reaching $309.51. 2,946,692 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,999,301. The company's fifty day moving average price is $302.06 and its 200-day moving average price is $339.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The firm has a market capitalization of $193.86 billion, a PE ratio of 25.97, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $275.01 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company's revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.77 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.91%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is 48.89%.

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.