Essex Savings Bank Grows Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Essex Savings Bank increased its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,807 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 74 shares during the period. Essex Savings Bank’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,691,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Edgestream Partners L.P. purchased a new position in Accenture in the second quarter valued at $1,524,000. Wealth Alliance raised its holdings in Accenture by 10.4% in the 2nd quarter. Wealth Alliance now owns 5,409 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,641,000 after purchasing an additional 511 shares during the period. E Fund Management Co. Ltd. boosted its position in Accenture by 32.7% during the second quarter. E Fund Management Co. Ltd. now owns 10,256 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,112,000 after purchasing an additional 2,526 shares in the last quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV grew its holdings in Accenture by 59.0% in the second quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 312,741 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $94,889,000 after purchasing an additional 116,005 shares during the period. Finally, Argent Trust Co increased its position in shares of Accenture by 4.1% in the second quarter. Argent Trust Co now owns 15,644 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,747,000 after buying an additional 610 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $349.45 on Thursday. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $218.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.57, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $357.98 and a 200 day moving average price of $344.94.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.27 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.69%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.66%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently commented on ACN shares. Wolfe Research raised shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Guggenheim lifted their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. StockNews.com raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $385.04.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $369.97, for a total value of $1,757,357.50. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 22,976 shares in the company, valued at $8,500,430.72. This trade represents a 17.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total value of $3,385,440.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. The trade was a 30.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 26,125 shares of company stock valued at $9,570,260. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.