New Mexico Educational Retirement Board Grows Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

New Mexico Educational Retirement Board increased its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 11.9% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 36,750 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,900 shares during the quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board’s holdings in Accenture were worth $12,393,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brown Miller Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 2.7% during the first quarter. Brown Miller Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,551 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,617,000 after purchasing an additional 195 shares in the last quarter. Town & Country Bank & Trust CO dba First Bankers Trust CO raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.7% during the 1st quarter. Town & Country Bank & Trust CO dba First Bankers Trust CO now owns 6,519 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,260,000 after acquiring an additional 111 shares in the last quarter. Winthrop Advisory Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 6.6% in the first quarter. Winthrop Advisory Group LLC now owns 1,868 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $647,000 after purchasing an additional 115 shares in the last quarter. Romano Brothers AND Company increased its position in Accenture by 13.5% in the first quarter. Romano Brothers AND Company now owns 4,908 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,701,000 after purchasing an additional 582 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Baker Ellis Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 28.8% during the first quarter. Baker Ellis Asset Management LLC now owns 760 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $263,000 after purchasing an additional 170 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently issued reports on ACN shares. Bank of America decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $419.00 to $365.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on Accenture in a research report on Monday, June 24th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $335.00 price target for the company. Citigroup dropped their price target on Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on Accenture from $379.00 to $320.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 17th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on Accenture from $340.00 to $275.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $352.74.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total value of $1,369,747.96. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 30,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,705,516.24. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total value of $1,369,747.96. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 30,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,705,516.24. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.91, for a total transaction of $1,974,437.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 161,581 shares in the company, valued at $51,045,053.71. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 20,083 shares of company stock valued at $6,302,285 over the last ninety days. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN traded up $0.22 on Friday, hitting $303.41. The stock had a trading volume of 14,905,693 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,036,297. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $300.17 and its 200 day moving average price is $336.10. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $203.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.38 and a beta of 1.21.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 11th will be issued a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.25%.

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.