California Public Employees Retirement System Purchases 595,970 Shares of Accenture PLC $ACN

California Public Employees Retirement System grew its position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 36.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,219,023 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 595,970 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Accenture were worth $663,244,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Brighton Jones LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 36.2% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 18,438 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $6,486,000 after buying an additional 4,905 shares during the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its stake in Accenture by 2.9% in the first quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 152,337 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $47,568,000 after acquiring an additional 4,255 shares during the period. Savvy Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Accenture by 17.3% in the first quarter. Savvy Advisors Inc. now owns 3,658 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,141,000 after acquiring an additional 539 shares in the last quarter. Founders Financial Alliance LLC increased its position in Accenture by 57.7% during the 1st quarter. Founders Financial Alliance LLC now owns 1,569 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $490,000 after purchasing an additional 574 shares during the period. Finally, Lcnb Corp lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 22.1% in the 1st quarter. Lcnb Corp now owns 4,807 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,500,000 after purchasing an additional 870 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $325.00 to $271.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 9th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on Accenture from $355.00 to $315.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, September 16th. Evercore ISI set a $280.00 target price on Accenture in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. Wells Fargo & Company initiated coverage on Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $251.00 price target on the stock. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on Accenture from $302.00 to $290.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $294.25.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 5,917 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $246.62, for a total transaction of $1,459,250.54. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 8,599 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,120,685.38. This trade represents a 40.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Manish Sharma sold 6,902 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.01, for a total value of $1,725,569.02. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 1,860 shares in the company, valued at $465,018.60. This trade represents a 78.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 33,319 shares of company stock worth $8,335,225. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

Accenture stock opened at $266.33 on Friday. Accenture PLC has a twelve month low of $229.40 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.42, a current ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company has a market capitalization of $175.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.92, a PEG ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 1.26. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $248.00 and its 200 day moving average is $266.73.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.98 by $0.05. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.45% and a net margin of 11.02%.The business had revenue of $17.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.34 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.66 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 14th. Investors of record on Friday, October 10th were given a dividend of $1.63 per share. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 10th. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.4%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 53.66%.

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.