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

California State Teachers Retirement System lessened its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.2% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. 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’s holdings in Accenture were worth $345,606,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,394,657 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $21,246,236,000 after buying an additional 392,183 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,528,348 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,750,021,000 after buying an additional 136,665 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in Accenture by 16.8% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,325,526,000 after purchasing an additional 1,770,024 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in Accenture by 22.8% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,283,225,000 after purchasing an additional 2,260,740 shares during the period. Finally, Capital International Investors raised its stake in Accenture by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 8,513,140 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,994,922,000 after buying an additional 181,449 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total transaction of $1,003,982.14. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 17,237 shares in the company, valued at $4,857,041.86. This represents a 17.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the sale, the insider now owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. This trade represents a 3.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 15,041 shares of company stock worth $5,254,956. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $293.63 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $183.91 billion, a price-to-earnings 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. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $316.14 and a 200-day moving average price of $347.02. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $275.01 and a twelve month high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.77 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently commented on the company. StockNews.com lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Guggenheim cut their price objective on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st. Baird R W raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Finally, Mizuho cut their price objective on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $377.82.

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.