California Public Employees Retirement System Purchases 595,970 Shares of Accenture PLC $ACN

California Public Employees Retirement System grew its holdings in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 36.7% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,219,023 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 595,970 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System owned about 0.35% of Accenture worth $663,244,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Global Retirement Partners LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the 2nd quarter worth about $2,658,000. C WorldWide Group Holding A S lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 35.9% in 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 in the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp boosted its position in shares of 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 during the period. Redwood Investments LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 6.2% during the first quarter. Redwood Investments LLC now owns 22,087 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $6,892,000 after acquiring an additional 1,287 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in Accenture during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $2,216,850,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Down 1.1%

Shares of ACN stock opened at $266.33 on Friday. 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 firm has a market cap of $175.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 1.26. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $248.00 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $266.73. Accenture PLC has a 12-month low of $229.40 and a 12-month high of $398.35.

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

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

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, insider Manish Sharma sold 6,902 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the insider owned 1,860 shares in the company, valued at $465,018.60. This trade represents a 78.77% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the company’s 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 sale, the chief executive officer owned 23,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,868,888.12. The trade was a 27.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 33,319 shares of company stock valued at $8,335,225. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Rothschild & Co Redburn boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $250.00 to $255.00 in a research report on Friday, September 19th. Mizuho reduced their target price on Accenture from $348.00 to $309.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, September 29th. BNP Paribas Exane decreased their target price on Accenture from $300.00 to $255.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, September 24th. Evercore ISI set a $280.00 price target on Accenture in a research report on Thursday, September 25th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $372.00 to $285.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $294.25.

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.