Field & Main Bank Raises Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Field & Main Bank lifted its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 5.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,520 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 297 shares during the quarter. Field & Main Bank’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,942,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Allen Capital Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 146.5% during the fourth quarter. Allen Capital Group LLC now owns 2,105 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $741,000 after purchasing an additional 1,251 shares during the last quarter. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. grew its holdings in Accenture by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,484 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $522,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares during the period. Forsta AP Fonden boosted its position in Accenture by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Forsta AP Fonden now owns 163,829 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $57,633,000 after purchasing an additional 1,100 shares in the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 6.8% during the 4th quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 473,408 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $166,540,000 after purchasing an additional 30,154 shares in the last quarter. Finally, R Squared Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth about $243,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Down 0.0 %

NYSE:ACN opened at $378.36 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $358.27 and its 200 day moving average price is $349.02. The company has a market capitalization of $236.78 billion, a PE ratio of 31.69, a P/E/G ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.27 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.56%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price target on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $383.74.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction of $527,200.98. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,278,431.38. This represents a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 16,446 shares of company stock valued at $5,852,848 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Company 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.