Public Sector Pension Investment Board Lowers Position in Accenture PLC $ACN

Public Sector Pension Investment Board trimmed its position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 22.5% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 144,323 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 41,937 shares during the quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board’s holdings in Accenture were worth $43,137,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Global Retirement Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 2nd quarter worth about $2,658,000. C WorldWide Group Holding A S increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 35.9% during the second quarter. C WorldWide Group Holding A S now owns 8,148 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,435,000 after buying an additional 2,151 shares during the period. Truist Financial Corp raised its holdings in Accenture by 7.0% in the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 436,202 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $130,376,000 after acquiring an additional 28,685 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Accenture in the second quarter worth approximately $2,216,850,000. Finally, Redwood Investments LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 6.2% in the 1st quarter. Redwood Investments LLC now owns 22,087 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $6,892,000 after purchasing an additional 1,287 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.57, for a total transaction of $2,246,130.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 23,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,868,888.12. This represents a 27.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Manish Sharma sold 6,902 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.01, for a total value of $1,725,569.02. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 1,860 shares in the company, valued at $465,018.60. This represents a 78.77% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 33,319 shares of company stock worth $8,335,225 over the last ninety days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $271.70 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $250.48 and its 200 day moving average price is $265.21. The company has a quick ratio of 1.42, a current ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $178.91 billion, a PE ratio of 22.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 1.26. Accenture PLC has a 52-week low of $229.40 and a 52-week high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.98 by $0.05. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.45% and a net margin of 11.02%.The company had revenue of $17.60 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.34 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.66 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 10th were issued a $1.63 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 10th. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.4%. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 53.66%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $302.00 to $290.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, September 26th. UBS Group decreased their price target on Accenture from $363.00 to $315.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, September 24th. Guggenheim dropped their price objective on Accenture from $305.00 to $285.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 26th. Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Finally, TD Cowen lowered their price target on Accenture from $313.00 to $295.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $293.21.

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.