State of Alaska Department of Revenue Acquires 16,055 Shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

State of Alaska Department of Revenue boosted its holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 22.5% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 87,297 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 16,055 shares during the period. State of Alaska Department of Revenue’s holdings in Accenture were worth $27,239,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. lifted its stake in Accenture by 62.2% in the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth about $31,000. Finally, Promus Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth about $34,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the subject of a number of research reports. Baird R W upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $372.00 to $340.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, June 12th. Guggenheim cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Mizuho cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $380.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related 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 transaction, the insider now directly 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 can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total transaction of $812,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 15,882 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,161,650. This represents a 13.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366 in the last ninety days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN stock opened at $312.03 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.48, a current ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Accenture PLC has a 12 month low of $275.01 and a 12 month high of $398.35. The firm has a market cap of $195.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.77, a P/E/G ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 1.33. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $306.40 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $334.90.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.43% and a return on equity of 26.49%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.77 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s 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.