Retirement Systems of Alabama Sells 1,186 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Retirement Systems of Alabama reduced its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 135,288 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 1,186 shares during the quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama’s holdings in Accenture were worth $47,593,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Accenture by 1.8% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,400,836 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $9,685,648,000 after acquiring an additional 471,792 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 378.9% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,491,736 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,941,219,000 after acquiring an additional 4,345,039 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Accenture by 1.2% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,823,754 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,705,100,000 after acquiring an additional 56,937 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB boosted its stake in Accenture by 47.5% in the fourth quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,763,690 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,324,029,000 after acquiring an additional 1,212,011 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp boosted its stake in Accenture by 1.5% in the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 1,892,409 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $668,974,000 after acquiring an additional 28,491 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,497 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.48, for a total transaction of $885,136.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 28,866 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,232,419.68. This trade represents a 7.96 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 13,255 shares of company stock valued at $4,756,101. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $391.98 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $360.05 and a 200-day moving average of $350.64. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $392.45. The company has a market cap of $245.30 billion, a PE ratio of 32.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.43 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.27 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.51%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 49.66%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on ACN shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 target price on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.22.

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.