Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Acquired by Sunflower Bank N.A.

Sunflower Bank N.A. boosted its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 5.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,508 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 77 shares during the period. Sunflower Bank N.A.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $530,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Thoroughbred Financial Services LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 12.0% in the 2nd quarter. Thoroughbred Financial Services LLC now owns 4,899 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,486,000 after acquiring an additional 524 shares during the period. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Accenture by 139.7% during the 2nd quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. now owns 8,630 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,619,000 after purchasing an additional 5,029 shares in the last quarter. Diversify Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at $2,994,000. Wilkins Investment Counsel Inc. raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.5% in the 2nd quarter. Wilkins Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 20,620 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $6,256,000 after buying an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rock Point Advisors LLC raised its position in Accenture by 17.8% in the second quarter. Rock Point Advisors LLC now owns 28,826 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $8,746,000 after acquiring an additional 4,357 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Down 0.2 %

ACN stock traded down $0.65 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $349.14. 2,508,029 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,694,241. The business has a 50-day moving average of $357.82 and a two-hundred day moving average of $344.30. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $218.49 billion, a PE ratio of 30.55, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.27 earnings per share. Accenture’s revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture announced that its board has approved a share buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 49.66%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total value of $1,899,689.80. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 38,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,490,266.50. This represents a 11.59 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total transaction of $250,477.14. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,102,817. This represents a 10.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 36,673 shares of company stock valued at $13,507,099 in the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently commented on the stock. Piper Sandler Companies reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, September 20th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their target price on Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $385.04.

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.