Field & Main Bank Buys 280 Shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Field & Main Bank grew its stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 5.1% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,800 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 280 shares during the quarter. Field & Main Bank’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,810,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,351,683,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in Accenture by 30,256.8% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,421,519 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,067,651,000 after purchasing an additional 3,410,248 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in Accenture by 22.8% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,283,225,000 after purchasing an additional 2,260,740 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth about $666,495,000. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in shares of Accenture by 16.8% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,325,526,000 after buying an additional 1,770,024 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Up 1.9%

NYSE:ACN opened at $300.66 on Wednesday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $307.33 and its 200-day simple moving average is $332.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a current ratio of 1.46. Accenture PLC has a fifty-two week low of $273.19 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $188.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.94, a P/E/G ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.33.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The company had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.26 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.13 earnings per share. Accenture’s revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.97%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 47.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total transaction of $812,500.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 15,882 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,161,650. The trade was a 13.60% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 5,364 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on ACN. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. Baird R W upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $370.75.

About Accenture

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.