Alaska Permanent Fund Corp Grows Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Alaska Permanent Fund Corp boosted its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 65.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 6,845 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,713 shares during the quarter. Alaska Permanent Fund Corp’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,402,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in Accenture by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 4,284,770 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,315,832,000 after buying an additional 96,414 shares during the last quarter. Redwood Investments LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 8.3% during the 4th quarter. Redwood Investments LLC now owns 20,227 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $7,098,000 after buying an additional 1,542 shares during the last quarter. Chicago Capital LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 284.7% during the 4th quarter. Chicago Capital LLC now owns 12,677 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,449,000 after buying an additional 9,382 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 33,484.1% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 567,572 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $199,167,000 after buying an additional 565,882 shares during the last quarter. Finally, VELA Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 4.3% during the 3rd quarter. VELA Investment Management LLC now owns 3,681 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,130,000 after buying an additional 153 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of Accenture stock traded down $6.56 during trading on Thursday, reaching $306.98. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 640,921 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,383,627. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $352.14 and its 200-day moving average price is $342.20. The firm has a market cap of $205.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 1.19. Accenture plc has a one year low of $261.68 and a one year high of $387.51.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total transaction of $2,657,040.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,877 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,937,488.01. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.81, for a total value of $1,859,050.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 20,316 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,553,691.96. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total value of $2,657,040.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at $5,937,488.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 39,833 shares of company stock valued at $13,645,871. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on ACN shares. BNP Paribas upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 17th. TD Cowen dropped their price target on Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on Accenture from $385.00 to $375.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.00.

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.