California State Teachers Retirement System Sells 32,117 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

California State Teachers Retirement System lowered its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 982,420 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 32,117 shares during the period. California State Teachers Retirement System owned about 0.16% of Accenture worth $345,606,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth about $25,000. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,796 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $635,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 8.4% during the 3rd quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 6,135 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,169,000 after purchasing an additional 474 shares in the last quarter. Arvest Bank Trust Division bought a new stake in Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at $18,115,000. Finally, Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB increased its stake in Accenture by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 41,175 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $14,555,000 after purchasing an additional 1,015 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Mizuho cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $377.82.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $293.63 on Monday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $316.14 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $347.02. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $275.01 and a 52 week high of $398.35. The company has a market cap of $183.91 billion, a PE ratio of 24.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.64 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.77 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.02%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 48.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total transaction of $91,514.72. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 8,915 shares in the company, valued at $3,516,610.90. The trade was a 2.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 15,041 shares of company stock worth $5,254,956. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.