Penobscot Investment Management Company Inc. Increases Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Penobscot Investment Management Company Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 34,877 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 564 shares during the quarter. Accenture comprises 1.4% of Penobscot Investment Management Company Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 16th biggest position. Penobscot Investment Management Company Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $12,239,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Brave Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Brave Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $361,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Addison Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 3,181 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,116,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 4.0% in the fourth quarter. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC now owns 760 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $267,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the period. Carr Financial Group Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Carr Financial Group Corp now owns 1,245 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $437,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the period. Finally, PDS Planning Inc lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. PDS Planning Inc now owns 2,372 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $832,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total value of $2,657,040.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at $5,937,488.01. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total value of $2,657,040.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at $5,937,488.01. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Manish Sharma sold 1,486 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $370.39, for a total value of $550,399.54. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 4,503 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,667,866.17. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 31,639 shares of company stock worth $10,276,287. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

Accenture stock traded down $2.17 on Tuesday, reaching $300.99. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,706,152 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,452,288. The company has a market cap of $201.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.27, a PEG ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.19. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $348.33 and its 200 day moving average price is $342.34. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $261.68 and a twelve month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.69 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 11th will be issued a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.71%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 46.78%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently commented on ACN shares. Susquehanna reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $360.00 price objective (down previously from $400.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. Mizuho restated a “buy” rating and set a $398.00 price objective (down from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Guggenheim began coverage on Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $425.00 target price on the stock. Finally, TD Cowen dropped their target price on Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.00.

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.