Intrust Bank NA Increases Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Intrust Bank NA increased its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.1% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 6,093 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 125 shares during the quarter. Intrust Bank NA’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,143,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Allstate Corp acquired a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth approximately $6,521,000. Maridea Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth $209,000. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 11,844 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,167,000 after purchasing an additional 306 shares in the last quarter. DnB Asset Management AS raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 4.9% during the fourth quarter. DnB Asset Management AS now owns 115,242 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $40,541,000 after purchasing an additional 5,397 shares during the period. Finally, Level Four Advisory Services LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 10.9% in the 4th quarter. Level Four Advisory Services LLC now owns 2,968 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,044,000 after buying an additional 291 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $304.32 on Friday. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $398.35. 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 stock’s 50 day moving average price is $354.96 and its 200 day moving average price is $355.97. The stock has a market cap of $190.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.53, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.77 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.95%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 48.89%.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,497 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.48, for a total value of $885,136.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 28,866 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,232,419.68. This represents a 7.96 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, 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 completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at $3,278,431.38. This represents a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Baird R W upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Mizuho dropped their price target on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 24th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $378.23.

Accenture 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.