Associated Banc Corp Purchases 74 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Associated Banc Corp raised its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 6.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,180 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 74 shares during the period. Associated Banc Corp’s holdings in Accenture were worth $417,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of ACN. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 1st quarter valued at about $256,000. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. grew its position in Accenture by 31.4% in the 1st quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 11,570 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,010,000 after purchasing an additional 2,768 shares during the period. Creekmur Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 108.0% during the 1st quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC now owns 104 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. Coppell Advisory Solutions Corp. purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 1st quarter worth $1,784,000. Finally, Vista Investment Partners LLC increased its position in Accenture by 0.3% during the first quarter. Vista Investment Partners LLC now owns 13,130 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,551,000 after acquiring an additional 39 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. This represents a 4.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 20,324 shares of the company’s stock, 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. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have issued reports on the company. Piper Sandler Companies reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, September 20th. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Bank of America raised their target price on Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $368.23.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $361.29 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $356.57 and a 200-day moving average price of $329.61. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $225.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.61, a P/E/G ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.71 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a $1.48 dividend. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.64%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 51.79%.

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.