First Hawaiian Bank Raises Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

First Hawaiian Bank raised its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 14.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 2,444 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 307 shares during the period. First Hawaiian Bank’s holdings in Accenture were worth $860,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Fulton Bank N.A. grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 7.4% in the fourth quarter. Fulton Bank N.A. now owns 12,655 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,452,000 after purchasing an additional 868 shares in the last quarter. Range Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $612,000. One Wealth Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth approximately $771,000. Norway Savings Bank lifted its stake in Accenture by 9.1% in the fourth quarter. Norway Savings Bank now owns 4,078 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,435,000 after acquiring an additional 341 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Birch Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Birch Capital Management LLC now owns 18,630 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $6,554,000 after acquiring an additional 404 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $385.04.

Accenture Stock Down 2.2 %

NYSE:ACN opened at $349.93 on Friday. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $218.98 billion, a PE ratio of 30.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $357.82 and its 200-day simple moving average is $343.77.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.27 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.69%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 49.66%.

Accenture declared that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The shares were 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 represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total transaction of $3,385,440.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. The trade was a 30.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 36,673 shares of company stock valued at $13,507,099. 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.