Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS Trims Stake in Accenture PLC $ACN

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS reduced its holdings in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 3.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 144,248 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 5,322 shares during the period. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS’s holdings in Accenture were worth $38,702,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Jaffetilchin Investment Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 4.2% in the fourth quarter. Jaffetilchin Investment Partners LLC now owns 878 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $236,000 after purchasing an additional 35 shares in the last quarter. Clayton Financial Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 13.1% in the fourth quarter. Clayton Financial Group LLC now owns 329 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $88,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Holt Capital Advisors L.L.C. dba Holt Capital Partners L.P. increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.9% in the third quarter. Holt Capital Advisors L.L.C. dba Holt Capital Partners L.P. now owns 4,416 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,089,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. Peak Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Peak Asset Management LLC now owns 5,447 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,461,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SkyView Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.2% in the second quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 3,751 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,108,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CEO Atsushi Egawa sold 4,872 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.14, for a total transaction of $863,026.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 12,802 shares in the company, valued at $2,267,746.28. This trade represents a 27.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $187.32 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 1.34. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $185.71 and a 200 day moving average price of $226.50. Accenture PLC has a fifty-two week low of $155.82 and a fifty-two week high of $321.77. The firm has a market cap of $124.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.34, a P/E/G ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.08.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Friday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.84 by $0.09. Accenture had a net margin of 10.61% and a return on equity of 26.33%. The firm had revenue of $18.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.80 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.82 earnings per share. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 13.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 9th were given a dividend of $1.63 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.5%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 53.40%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on ACN. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $317.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 10th. Mizuho reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $309.00 to $280.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 23rd. TD Cowen reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $282.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 16th. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $330.00 to $265.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 20th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $295.00 to $253.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 20th. Seventeen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $274.50.

Accenture Profile

Accenture is a global professional services company that provides a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. The firm works with organizations across industries to design and implement business transformation programs, deploy and manage enterprise technology, optimize operations, and develop customer and digital experiences. Its offerings encompass management and technology consulting, systems integration, application and infrastructure services, cloud migration and managed services, as well as security and analytics capabilities.

The company delivers industry- and function-specific solutions, combining consulting expertise with proprietary tools, platforms and partnerships with major technology vendors.