State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Cuts Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D reduced its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 35.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 231,498 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 128,174 shares during the period. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D’s holdings in Accenture were worth $70,239,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Annapolis Financial Services LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 507.7% during the 1st quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 79 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 66 shares during the period. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $28,000. Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $29,000. Finally, Atwood & Palmer Inc. grew its holdings in Accenture by 214.8% during the 1st quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. now owns 85 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have commented on ACN shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $409.00 to $295.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 15th. Mizuho lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $398.00 to $350.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, June 18th. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $320.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 17th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $395.00 to $340.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut shares of Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $382.00 to $300.00 in a report on Wednesday, June 26th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $353.41.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total value of $1,166,972.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 11,819 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,652,661.95. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total value of $1,166,972.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,652,661.95. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total transaction of $472,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,570 shares in the company, valued at $12,149,550. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635 in the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $350.12 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $219.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.06, a PEG ratio of 3.60 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $326.18 and a two-hundred day moving average of $323.82.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.15 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $16.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.55 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.19 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 11th were issued a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 11th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.47%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 47.25%.

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.