New Mexico Educational Retirement Board Lowers Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

New Mexico Educational Retirement Board cut its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 29,850 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 900 shares during the period. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board’s holdings in Accenture were worth $10,501,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Creative Planning boosted its holdings in Accenture by 5.5% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 247,724 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $87,566,000 after buying an additional 12,993 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB raised its position in Accenture by 16.6% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,551,679 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $901,967,000 after acquiring an additional 363,401 shares during the period. Cornerstone Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Accenture by 45.8% during the third quarter. Cornerstone Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,874 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $662,000 after acquiring an additional 589 shares during the period. Kowal Investment Group LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the third quarter worth $222,000. Finally, Probity Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture during the third quarter worth $208,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Price Performance

Accenture stock opened at $387.99 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The stock has a market cap of $242.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.55, a PEG ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $364.78 and a 200 day moving average price of $353.68. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. Accenture’s revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.27 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th were paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.66%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total value of $242,750.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 8,674 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,073,892.12. This trade represents a 7.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction of $527,200.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,278,431.38. The trade was a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190 over the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on ACN. Robert W. Baird restated a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price objective for the company in a research 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 company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. 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 an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.22.

Accenture Company 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.