Treasurer of the State of North Carolina Boosts Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Treasurer of the State of North Carolina boosted its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.5% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 283,477 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,280 shares during the period. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina’s holdings in Accenture were worth $99,724,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 6.5% during the fourth quarter. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA now owns 63,429 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $22,314,000 after buying an additional 3,883 shares during the last quarter. Davidson Trust Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 7.4% in the fourth quarter. Davidson Trust Co. now owns 2,307 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $812,000 after purchasing an additional 158 shares during the period. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 126.8% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC now owns 40,051 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $14,090,000 after purchasing an additional 22,391 shares during the period. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 37.5% in the fourth quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 3,094 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,088,000 after purchasing an additional 843 shares during the period. Finally, SteelPeak Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 127.1% in the fourth quarter. SteelPeak Wealth LLC now owns 2,323 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $817,000 after purchasing an additional 1,300 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total value of $3,468,574.71. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. This represents a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total transaction of $242,750.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 8,674 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,073,892.12. This represents a 7.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE:ACN opened at $300.20 on Thursday. 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 company has a market cap of $188.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.18, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $275.01 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $340.78 and its two-hundred day moving average is $352.78.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.77 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.97%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.89%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the subject of a number of research reports. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 17th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Barclays lowered their target price on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 24th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their target price on Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $378.23.

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.