Bank of Stockton Buys 55 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Bank of Stockton grew its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.1% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,239 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 55 shares during the period. Bank of Stockton’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,852,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the 2nd quarter worth $26,000. Annapolis Financial Services LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 507.7% during the first quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 79 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the period. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at about $28,000. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the first quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Finally, Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 607.1% during the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the topic of a number of research reports. UBS Group boosted their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday. TD Cowen raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, September 20th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $371.18.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total value of $250,477.14. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,650 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,102,817. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total transaction of $250,477.14. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,102,817. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $3,649,265.25. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 24,971 shares of company stock worth $9,330,113 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Down 0.8 %

Shares of ACN traded down $2.90 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $361.33. The company had a trading volume of 527,591 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,714,115. The business has a fifty day moving average of $349.56 and a 200-day moving average of $322.81. The firm has a market cap of $226.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.32, a PEG ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51.

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 54.21%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan 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 repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.