Busey Bank Grows Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Busey Bank increased its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 72,670 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,042 shares during the period. Accenture makes up approximately 0.8% of Busey Bank’s holdings, making the stock its 27th biggest position. Busey Bank’s holdings in Accenture were worth $25,565,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Advisory Alpha LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 25.4% during the 2nd quarter. Advisory Alpha LLC now owns 968 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $294,000 after acquiring an additional 196 shares during the period. Founders Financial Alliance LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 35.1% during the second quarter. Founders Financial Alliance LLC now owns 963 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $292,000 after purchasing an additional 250 shares during the period. SRN Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 0.8% in the second quarter. SRN Advisors LLC now owns 8,327 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,526,000 after purchasing an additional 64 shares during the last quarter. Brown Financial Advisors purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at $675,000. Finally, Sanctuary Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at $27,862,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE:ACN opened at $375.13 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $234.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.47, a PEG ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $358.27 and a 200-day simple moving average of $349.02. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year 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 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The business’s revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $3.27 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

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 issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.58%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently commented on ACN shares. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 target price for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. StockNews.com raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $383.74.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total value of $527,200.98. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at $3,278,431.38. This represents a 13.85 % 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 Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 16,446 shares of company stock valued at $5,852,848 in the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.