Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Acquired by Trust Co. of Toledo NA OH

Trust Co. of Toledo NA OH increased its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 11.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 4,220 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 420 shares during the quarter. Trust Co. of Toledo NA OH’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,485,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the third quarter worth approximately $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the third quarter worth approximately $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 607.1% during the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at $39,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at $51,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the firm’s 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 $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total value of $250,477.14. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,650 shares in the company, valued at $2,102,817. This represents a 10.64 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 36,673 shares of company stock worth $13,507,099. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the subject of several analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. UBS Group upped their target price on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Piper Sandler Companies restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, September 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on Accenture from $355.00 to $385.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $385.04.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN stock traded down $0.52 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $349.27. The company had a trading volume of 388,673 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,379,740. The company has a market capitalization of $218.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $357.82 and a 200 day simple moving average of $344.30. 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 quarterly earnings data 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. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.27 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.69%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

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.