Norway Savings Bank Buys 341 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Norway Savings Bank increased its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 9.1% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 4,078 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 341 shares during the period. Norway Savings Bank’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,435,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the second quarter worth $28,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Accenture during the third quarter valued at $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 607.1% in the 3rd quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at about $39,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total value of $3,385,440.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 20,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. This represents a 30.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total value of $1,899,689.80. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,490,266.50. This trade represents a 11.59 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 36,673 shares of company stock worth $13,507,099. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the topic of several analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Susquehanna boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $383.23.

Accenture Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE ACN traded up $3.36 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $354.69. 2,390,755 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,245,404. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $357.39 and a 200 day moving average of $342.94. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $221.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.03, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.27 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.74 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.67%. Accenture’s 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.