Heartland Bank & Trust Co Buys 149 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Heartland Bank & Trust Co grew its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 18.9% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 936 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 149 shares during the period. Heartland Bank & Trust Co’s holdings in Accenture were worth $329,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 378.9% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,491,736 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,941,219,000 after purchasing an additional 4,345,039 shares during the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 44.7% during the second quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,709,989 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $822,238,000 after buying an additional 837,677 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in Accenture by 2,666.5% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 715,219 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $251,607,000 after buying an additional 689,366 shares during the period. Holocene Advisors LP bought a new stake in Accenture during the third quarter valued at $204,895,000. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 37,788.5% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 510,358 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $180,401,000 after acquiring an additional 509,011 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. This represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total value of $242,750.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 8,674 shares in the company, valued at $3,073,892.12. This represents a 7.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 9,196 shares of company stock worth $3,226,918 over the last three months. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. UBS Group increased their price target on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Robert W. Baird restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $383.74.

Accenture Stock Down 0.2 %

Accenture stock opened at $362.65 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The stock has a market cap of $226.94 billion, a PE ratio of 30.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.20 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. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $357.37 and its 200 day simple moving average is $348.01.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly 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 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. Accenture’s revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.27 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio 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.