Norway Savings Bank Increases Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Norway Savings Bank lifted its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 9.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 4,078 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 341 shares during the period. Norway Savings Bank’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,435,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the third quarter worth about $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 607.1% in the 3rd quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at $51,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on ACN shares. Mizuho boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Barclays lifted their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $385.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $383.23.

Accenture Trading Up 1.0 %

ACN stock traded up $3.36 on Tuesday, hitting $354.69. The company had a trading volume of 2,390,755 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,245,404. The stock has a market cap of $221.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.03, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $357.39 and its 200 day simple moving average is $342.94. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.27 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.67%. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 49.66%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,845,916.50. This represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.24, for a total transaction of $1,866,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 17,593 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,566,411.32. This trade represents a 22.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 36,673 shares of company stock worth $13,507,099 in the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.