Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by South Dakota Investment Council

South Dakota Investment Council decreased its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.5% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 16,657 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 600 shares during the quarter. South Dakota Investment Council’s holdings in Accenture were worth $5,860,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new stake in Accenture during the third quarter worth approximately $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. raised its holdings in Accenture by 62.2% during the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. 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. Finally, Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth approximately $34,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total transaction of $91,514.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 8,915 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,516,610.90. This trade represents a 2.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190 in the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Accenture Trading Down 5.3 %

NYSE:ACN opened at $364.35 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $228.00 billion, a PE ratio of 30.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.41 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $398.35. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $367.48 and a 200-day simple moving average of $356.38.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.27 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. 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. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. 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. StockNews.com raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $370.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.22.

Accenture Company 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.