Hills Bank & Trust Co Boosts Stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Hills Bank & Trust Co grew its stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 9.3% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 3,557 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 302 shares during the quarter. Hills Bank & Trust Co’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,110,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of ACN. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $2,351,683,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 30,256.8% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,421,519 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,067,651,000 after acquiring an additional 3,410,248 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in Accenture by 22.8% during the fourth 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 acquiring an additional 2,260,740 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $666,495,000. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors raised its stake in 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 worth $4,325,526,000 after acquiring an additional 1,770,024 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, 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 transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 15,882 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,161,650. This trade represents a 13.60% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366 in the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Stock Down 0.3%

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $295.26 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a current ratio of 1.46. The company has a market cap of $184.93 billion, a PE ratio of 23.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 1.33. Accenture PLC has a 52 week low of $273.19 and a 52 week high of $398.35. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $308.04 and a 200 day simple moving average of $331.42.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.01%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 47.13%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently weighed in on ACN. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Baird R W upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. 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 report on Monday, June 23rd. Finally, Guggenheim decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $370.71.

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.