Trust Co. of Toledo NA OH Has $1.34 Million Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Trust Co. of Toledo NA OH increased its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 37.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 3,800 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,040 shares during the quarter. Trust Co. of Toledo NA OH’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,343,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 18.7% in the 2nd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 172,199 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $52,247,000 after buying an additional 27,168 shares in the last quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 11.9% during the 1st quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board now owns 36,750 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $12,393,000 after purchasing an additional 3,900 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 13.3% in the 1st quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 183,446 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $63,584,000 after purchasing an additional 21,516 shares during the last quarter. M&G Plc acquired a new position in Accenture during the first quarter worth $19,007,000. Finally, First Long Island Investors LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 27.8% in the first quarter. First Long Island Investors LLC now owns 65,717 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $22,778,000 after buying an additional 14,283 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total transaction of $1,166,972.80. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,819 shares in the company, valued at $3,652,661.95. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total value of $1,166,972.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,819 shares in the company, valued at $3,652,661.95. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total transaction of $927,660.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 40,070 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,390,445.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $361.37 on Friday. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $335.96 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $320.60. The stock has a market capitalization of $226.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.71 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 11.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.64%. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 54.21%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on ACN. Piper Sandler Companies reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 20th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday. Morgan Stanley downgraded Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $382.00 to $300.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 26th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on Accenture from $395.00 to $340.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $371.18.

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.