Camden National Bank Has $17 Million Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Camden National Bank decreased its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.2% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 48,086 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 1,075 shares during the period. Accenture accounts for about 2.4% of Camden National Bank’s portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest holding. Camden National Bank’s holdings in Accenture were worth $16,997,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,447 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $511,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. BSW Wealth Partners lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. BSW Wealth Partners now owns 4,077 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,441,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Slow Capital Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Slow Capital Inc. now owns 9,067 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,205,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 5,206 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,840,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Conscious Wealth Investments LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Conscious Wealth Investments LLC now owns 7,744 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,870,000 after purchasing an additional 31 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on ACN shares. StockNews.com lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Susquehanna raised their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. BNP Paribas lowered Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Mizuho raised their target price on Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Finally, TD Cowen upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $368.23.

Accenture Stock Down 0.7 %

NYSE:ACN opened at $358.66 on Friday. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $224.22 billion, a PE ratio of 31.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.25. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $356.42 and its 200-day moving average price is $328.98.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.71 EPS. Accenture’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 51.79%.

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

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the business’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 directly owns 6 shares in the company, valued at $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of Accenture 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. The trade was a 4.47 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661 in the last ninety 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.