Webster Bank N. A. Has $5.95 Million Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Webster Bank N. A. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 35.9% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 16,843 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,449 shares during the quarter. Webster Bank N. A.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $5,954,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.1% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 59,718,732 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $20,699,110,000 after buying an additional 635,349 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its stake in Accenture by 1.2% in the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 10,912,962 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,311,102,000 after purchasing an additional 131,544 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors grew its stake in Accenture by 2.0% in the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,652,537 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,999,056,000 after purchasing an additional 173,107 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its stake in Accenture by 1.4% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,887,266 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,786,256,000 after purchasing an additional 80,514 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 4.1% in the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 3,797,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,316,086,000 after purchasing an additional 148,738 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the company. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Bank of America lifted their target price on Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. UBS Group lifted their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $371.18.

Accenture Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of ACN traded down $0.33 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $360.74. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,436,631 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,751,502. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $339.97 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $320.63. The stock has a market capitalization of $226.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25.

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company 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 dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.64%. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 45.14%.

Accenture announced that its board has approved a share 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 buy 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.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total transaction of $472,500.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 38,570 shares in the company, valued at $12,149,550. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total value of $472,500.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 38,570 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,149,550. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 $2,964,751.98. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 14,645 shares of company stock worth $4,818,002 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.