State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Sells 19,343 Shares of Accenture PLC $ACN

Key Points

• The State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D has reduced its holdings in Accenture PLC by 8.4% to 211,642 shares, valued at approximately $66.04 million.
• Accenture's CEO, Julie Spellman Sweet, sold 2,251 shares for about $635,795, reflecting a significant decrease in her ownership.
• Analysts have mixed views on Accenture, with Guggenheim lowering their target price to $335, while UBS raised theirs to $395, indicating a generally optimistic outlook on the company.

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D decreased its holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 8.4% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 211,642 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 19,343 shares during the period. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D's holdings in Accenture were worth $66,041,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth approximately $30,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth approximately $31,000. Inlight Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the first quarter worth approximately $32,000. Capital A Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth approximately $34,000. Finally, Navigoe LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth approximately $37,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total transaction of $635,794.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 8,109 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,290,387.05. The trade was a 21.73% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $141,170.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,283 shares of the company's stock, valued at $644,582.22. This trade represents a 17.97% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 2,954 shares of company stock worth $834,280. Insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft started coverage on Accenture in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. They set a "hold" rating and a $290.00 price target on the stock. Argus set a $370.00 target price on Accenture in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Benchmark reaffirmed a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, June 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Accenture from $349.00 to $353.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, June 16th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $360.21.

Accenture Trading Up 0.4%

Shares of ACN stock traded up $0.88 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $247.04. The company's stock had a trading volume of 4,223,359 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,755,595. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $283.92 and its 200-day simple moving average is $310.68. Accenture PLC has a 52 week low of $236.67 and a 52 week high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a current ratio of 1.46. The company has a market cap of $154.73 billion, a PE ratio of 19.67, a P/E/G ratio of 2.25 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 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.55% and a net margin of 11.61%. The business had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.13 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th were paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.4%. Accenture's payout ratio is 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.