CoreFirst Bank & Trust Invests $986,000 in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

CoreFirst Bank & Trust acquired a new position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 2,804 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $986,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ACN. Prudential Financial Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 117,072 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $41,185,000 after acquiring an additional 600 shares during the last quarter. Hirtle Callaghan & Co LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 16.9% in the fourth quarter. Hirtle Callaghan & Co LLC now owns 1,767 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $622,000 after buying an additional 255 shares during the last quarter. ICW Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 14.2% during the fourth quarter. ICW Investment Advisors LLC now owns 5,369 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,889,000 after acquiring an additional 668 shares during the last quarter. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE grew its stake in Accenture by 4.9% in the 4th quarter. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE now owns 50,332 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $17,706,000 after acquiring an additional 2,366 shares during the period. Finally, Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. acquired a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $35,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total value of $242,750.30. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 8,674 shares in the company, valued at $3,073,892.12. This trade represents a 7.32 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total value of $3,468,574.71. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. The trade was a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 21,905 shares of company stock worth $8,181,753 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. Robert W. Baird raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Mizuho lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Guggenheim dropped their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $378.91.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN stock opened at $307.24 on Tuesday. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $398.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The company has a market capitalization of $192.27 billion, a PE ratio of 25.78, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $358.32 and its two-hundred day moving average is $357.10.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th 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 1.93%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 48.89%.

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.