New Mexico Educational Retirement Board Decreases Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

New Mexico Educational Retirement Board lowered its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 29,850 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 900 shares during the quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board’s holdings in Accenture were worth $10,501,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in Accenture in the third quarter worth approximately $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Accenture during the third quarter worth approximately $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 64.2% during the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth approximately $34,000. Finally, Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 607.1% during the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. The trade was a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $387.99 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $242.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.55, a PEG ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $398.35. The company’s fifty day moving average is $364.78 and its two-hundred day moving average is $353.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.27 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th were given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.53%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 49.66%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. BNP Paribas cut shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.22.

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.