1ST Source Bank Grows Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

1ST Source Bank boosted its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 14.3% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 1,506 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 188 shares during the quarter. 1ST Source Bank’s holdings in Accenture were worth $532,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 2.0% during the third quarter. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,447 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $511,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. BSW Wealth Partners lifted its holdings in Accenture by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. BSW Wealth Partners now owns 4,077 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,441,000 after buying an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Slow Capital Inc. boosted its position in Accenture by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Slow Capital Inc. now owns 9,067 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,205,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.3% during the third quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,951 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,871,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Finally, NBC Securities Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.6% in the third quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 5,206 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,840,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the topic of several analyst reports. Barclays lifted their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Guggenheim increased their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $373.32.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total value of $2,945,801.52. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 12,188 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,412,909.16. This represents a 40.03 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $358.68 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $224.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $360.54 and its 200-day moving average is $334.65. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.71 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.65%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 51.79%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan 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 buy up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.