First County Bank CT Trims Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

First County Bank CT lowered its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 5.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,007 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 55 shares during the quarter. First County Bank CT’s holdings in Accenture were worth $354,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth $25,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the second quarter worth $28,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC raised 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 acquiring an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new stake in Accenture during the third quarter valued at about $39,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have commented on ACN shares. TD Cowen raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Monday, September 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised 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 report on Friday, December 6th. BNP Paribas cut Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price target on Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $383.23.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN traded up $3.36 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $354.69. 2,390,755 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,245,404. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $221.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a 50 day moving average of $357.39 and a 200-day moving average of $342.94.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly 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 return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.27 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.67%. Accenture’s dividend 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 buy up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total value of $170,948.50. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at $3,649,265.25. The trade was a 4.47 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total transaction of $3,385,440.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. The trade was a 30.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 36,673 shares of company stock worth $13,507,099. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.