California State Teachers Retirement System Acquires 115,098,783 Shares of Accenture PLC $ACN

California State Teachers Retirement System lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 12,316.0% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 116,033,331 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 115,098,783 shares during the quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System owned about 0.17% of Accenture worth $14,439,188,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd grew its position in shares of Accenture by 12.0% in the fourth quarter. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd now owns 335,314 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $89,965,000 after purchasing an additional 36,037 shares in the last quarter. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 10.4% during the 2nd quarter. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 74,187 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $9,232,000 after purchasing an additional 7,018 shares in the last quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 287.0% in the 4th quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 1,307,722 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $350,862,000 after purchasing an additional 969,792 shares during the period. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund boosted its stake in Accenture by 6.7% in the 4th quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 74,054 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $19,869,000 after purchasing an additional 4,640 shares during the period. Finally, Ironwood Investment Counsel LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 29.0% during the 4th quarter. Ironwood Investment Counsel LLC now owns 39,755 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $10,666,000 after buying an additional 8,944 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 10,498 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.98, for a total transaction of $1,710,964.04. Following the transaction, the general counsel owned 17,735 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,890,450.30. This trade represents a 37.18% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $186.53 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $124.57 billion, a PE ratio of 14.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. Accenture PLC has a 12 month low of $118.15 and a 12 month high of $291.09. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $163.15 and its 200-day moving average price is $176.29.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Friday, June 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.80 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.70 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $18.72 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $18.78 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.47% and a net margin of 10.66%.Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.49 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 13.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, June 23rd that authorizes the company to repurchase $2.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to buy up to 2.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 9th were issued a $1.63 dividend. This represents a $6.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.5%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 9th. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 52.08%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on ACN shares. Truist Financial lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $210.00 to $150.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 22nd. TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $151.00 to $173.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $270.00 to $230.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. DA Davidson lowered their price objective on Accenture from $275.00 to $175.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered Accenture from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $194.19.

Accenture Profile

Accenture is a global professional services company that provides a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. The firm works with organizations across industries to design and implement business transformation programs, deploy and manage enterprise technology, optimize operations, and develop customer and digital experiences. Its offerings encompass management and technology consulting, systems integration, application and infrastructure services, cloud migration and managed services, as well as security and analytics capabilities.

The company delivers industry- and function-specific solutions, combining consulting expertise with proprietary tools, platforms and partnerships with major technology vendors.