Bank of Stockton Increases Stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Bank of Stockton lifted its position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 3.8% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 5,213 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 192 shares during the period. Bank of Stockton’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,627,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $2,351,683,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in Accenture by 30,256.8% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,421,519 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,067,651,000 after purchasing an additional 3,410,248 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in shares of Accenture by 22.8% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,283,225,000 after buying an additional 2,260,740 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $666,495,000. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 16.8% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,325,526,000 after acquiring an additional 1,770,024 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN stock opened at $294.71 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $184.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.48. Accenture PLC has a 1 year low of $273.19 and a 1 year high of $398.35. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $307.51 and its 200-day moving average price is $332.55.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.13 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.01%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 9,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,806,442.95. This represents a 18.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total transaction of $812,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 15,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,161,650. This trade represents a 13.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on ACN. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Mizuho dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $348.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. Finally, Guggenheim cut their price target on Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $370.75.

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.