Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Acquired by Norway Savings Bank

Norway Savings Bank increased its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 6.8% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 3,667 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 235 shares during the quarter. Norway Savings Bank’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,271,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 7.4% during the 4th quarter. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. now owns 29,204 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $10,248,000 after acquiring an additional 2,008 shares during the last quarter. TrinityPoint Wealth LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. TrinityPoint Wealth LLC now owns 3,646 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,279,000 after acquiring an additional 125 shares in the last quarter. Buckingham Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 3.4% in the fourth quarter. Buckingham Capital Management Inc. now owns 27,559 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $9,671,000 after acquiring an additional 900 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.3% during the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 4,284,770 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,315,832,000 after acquiring an additional 96,414 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Redwood Investments LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 8.3% during the fourth quarter. Redwood Investments LLC now owns 20,227 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $7,098,000 after purchasing an additional 1,542 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.91, for a total transaction of $1,974,437.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 161,581 shares in the company, valued at $51,045,053.71. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.91, for a total transaction of $1,974,437.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 161,581 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $51,045,053.71. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total value of $1,369,747.96. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 30,702 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,705,516.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 20,083 shares of company stock worth $6,302,285. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Accenture Stock Up 0.1 %

ACN stock opened at $303.58 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $300.17 and a 200-day moving average of $336.15. The company has a market cap of $203.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.80, a PEG ratio of 3.38 and a beta of 1.21. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.15 by ($0.02). Accenture had a net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. The business had revenue of $16.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.55 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.19 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 11th will be given a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 11th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.70%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.25%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the topic of several recent research reports. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Barclays lowered their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $350.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 17th. TD Cowen dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $294.00 to $293.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, June 21st. Mizuho lowered their price objective on Accenture from $398.00 to $350.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. Finally, Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $382.00 to $300.00 in a research note on Wednesday. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $352.74.

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.