HTLF Bank Lowers Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

HTLF Bank decreased its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 71.3% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,618 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 4,010 shares during the quarter. HTLF Bank’s holdings in Accenture were worth $572,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. First Pacific Financial boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 3.1% in the third quarter. First Pacific Financial now owns 3,952 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,397,000 after buying an additional 118 shares during the last quarter. Cabot Wealth Management Inc. raised its holdings in Accenture by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter. Cabot Wealth Management Inc. now owns 31,363 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $11,086,000 after purchasing an additional 857 shares during the period. Trust Co. of Oklahoma raised its holdings in Accenture by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Trust Co. of Oklahoma now owns 12,955 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,579,000 after purchasing an additional 189 shares during the period. Swedbank AB raised its holdings in Accenture by 16.6% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,551,679 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $901,967,000 after purchasing an additional 363,401 shares during the period. Finally, Birch Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter. Birch Capital Management LLC now owns 18,226 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $6,443,000 after purchasing an additional 900 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Bank of America upped their price target on Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Guggenheim increased their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $382.00 to $300.00 in a report on Wednesday, June 26th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $371.18.

Accenture Trading Up 1.1 %

Accenture stock traded up $4.06 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $368.66. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,954,616 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,750,996. The firm has a market capitalization of $231.04 billion, a PE ratio of 33.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $340.99 and its two-hundred day moving average is $320.62.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.71 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.61%. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 54.21%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has initiated 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 repurchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total transaction of $1,649,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at $2,964,751.98. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total value of $2,696,402.25. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 22,849 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,564,161.45. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total value of $1,649,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.