South Dakota Investment Council Acquires 23,600 Shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

South Dakota Investment Council grew its position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 141.7% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 40,257 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 23,600 shares during the quarter. South Dakota Investment Council's holdings in Accenture were worth $12,562,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Visionary Wealth Advisors raised its position in shares of Accenture by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. Visionary Wealth Advisors now owns 778 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $274,000 after buying an additional 26 shares in the last quarter. Vivaldi Capital Management LP raised its position in shares of Accenture by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Vivaldi Capital Management LP now owns 782 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $292,000 after buying an additional 27 shares in the last quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 7.5% in the fourth quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 418 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $147,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,981 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $3,863,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sentinus LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 4.2% during the fourth quarter. Sentinus LLC now owns 763 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $268,000 after purchasing an additional 31 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the topic of a number of research reports. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Argus set a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. Mizuho set a $348.00 price objective on shares of Accenture and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Finally, UBS Group reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $395.00 price objective (up from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $365.43.

Accenture Stock Up 0.0%

NYSE:ACN traded up $0.01 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $282.45. 1,362,756 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,904,186. Accenture PLC has a one year low of $273.19 and a one year high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.46. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $306.32 and a 200 day moving average price of $324.37. The company has a market cap of $176.91 billion, a PE ratio of 22.49, a P/E/G ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 1.29.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. The firm 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 business's revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.13 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict 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 given a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.10%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.13%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total transaction of $635,794.95. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 8,109 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,290,387.05. The trade was a 21.73% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total transaction of $812,500.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 15,882 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,161,650. The trade was a 13.60% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 5,454 shares of company stock worth $1,646,780. Company insiders own 0.02% 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.