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

First County Bank CT lessened its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 5.2% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 1,007 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 55 shares during the period. First County Bank CT’s holdings in Accenture were worth $354,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth about $25,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the second quarter valued at approximately $28,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 607.1% during the 3rd quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the period. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $39,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 5,650 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,102,817. The trade was a 10.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total transaction of $170,948.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at $3,649,265.25. This represents a 4.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 36,673 shares of company stock valued at $13,507,099 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Guggenheim upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Bank of America increased their target price on Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, TD Cowen upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a report on Monday, September 30th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $383.23.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN traded up $3.36 on Tuesday, hitting $354.69. 2,390,755 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,245,404. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $357.39 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $342.94. The firm has a market cap of $221.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.03, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51.

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

Accenture declared that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 49.66%.

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.