Horizon Bancorp Inc. IN Grows Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Horizon Bancorp Inc. IN lifted its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 15.9% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 679 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 93 shares during the period. Horizon Bancorp Inc. IN’s holdings in Accenture were worth $239,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Marcum Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Marcum Wealth LLC now owns 2,269 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $798,000 after acquiring an additional 33 shares during the last quarter. Traveka Wealth LLC increased its position in Accenture by 9.4% during the 4th quarter. Traveka Wealth LLC now owns 1,366 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $481,000 after purchasing an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. Unique Wealth LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 6.9% during the fourth quarter. Unique Wealth LLC now owns 8,005 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,816,000 after buying an additional 515 shares during the period. PFW Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $2,902,000. Finally, Marion Wealth Management grew its stake in Accenture by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. Marion Wealth Management now owns 12,011 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,225,000 after purchasing an additional 421 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently commented on ACN. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $385.04.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total transaction of $170,948.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,649,265.25. This trade represents a 4.47 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 36,673 shares of company stock valued at $13,507,099. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $349.14 on Tuesday. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The firm has a market cap of $218.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $357.93 and its 200-day simple moving average is $344.63.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.27 earnings per share. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 49.66%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

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.