State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Lowers Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D lessened its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 359,672 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 798 shares during the period. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D’s holdings in Accenture were worth $126,213,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Chilton Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 180.0% in the 4th quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the period. BluePath Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Halpern Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $50,000. Finally, Valley National Advisers Inc. boosted its stake in Accenture by 40.3% in the third quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 167 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $51,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at $4,208,606.78. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value of $1,536,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total transaction of $1,369,747.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 30,702 shares in the company, valued at $9,705,516.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 32,490 shares of company stock worth $10,592,664. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on ACN shares. Redburn Atlantic raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.00.

Accenture Trading Down 0.3 %

ACN traded down $1.07 on Friday, reaching $307.93. The stock had a trading volume of 3,371,677 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,435,283. The company has a market cap of $206.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 1.19. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $350.89 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $341.97. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $261.68 and a 12-month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.69 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be paid a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.68%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 46.78%.

Accenture 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.