Kentucky Retirement Systems Sells 187 Shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Kentucky Retirement Systems cut its stake in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACNFree Report) by 0.4% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 42,857 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 187 shares during the period. Kentucky Retirement Systems’ holdings in Accenture were worth $13,373,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Accenture by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,394,657 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $21,246,236,000 after buying an additional 392,183 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,528,348 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,750,021,000 after buying an additional 136,665 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors increased its position in shares of Accenture by 16.8% during 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 buying an additional 1,770,024 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in shares of 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 worth $4,283,225,000 after purchasing an additional 2,260,740 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors increased its position in shares of Accenture by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 8,513,140 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,994,922,000 after purchasing an additional 181,449 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value 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 trade represents a 3.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total value of $812,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 15,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,161,650. The trade was a 13.60% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366 over the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $349.00 to $353.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, June 16th. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Guggenheim decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. Seven 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 MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $380.00.

Read Our Latest Stock Report on ACN

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE:ACN opened at $285.66 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $178.92 billion, a PE ratio of 22.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.33. Accenture PLC has a fifty-two week low of $273.19 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a current ratio of 1.48. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $306.98 and a 200-day moving average price of $333.68.

Accenture (NYSE:ACNGet Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.49% and a net margin of 11.43%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.13 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.07%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.89%.

About Accenture

(Free Report)

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.

Further Reading

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Institutional Ownership by Quarter for Accenture (NYSE:ACN)

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