Commerce Bank Purchases 1,100 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Commerce Bank raised its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 2.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 49,016 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 1,100 shares during the quarter. Commerce Bank's holdings in Accenture were worth $17,243,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new stake in Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth $25,000. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,796 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $635,000 after acquiring an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 8.4% in the 3rd quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 6,135 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $2,169,000 after acquiring an additional 474 shares during the period. Arvest Bank Trust Division acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the third quarter valued at $18,115,000. Finally, Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB lifted its position in Accenture by 2.5% in the third quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 41,175 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $14,555,000 after purchasing an additional 1,015 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Guggenheim cut their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $377.82.

Accenture Stock Up 1.5 %

Shares of ACN stock traded up $4.30 on Wednesday, hitting $288.26. 2,752,891 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,004,692. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The firm has a market capitalization of $180.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $275.01 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The business has a 50-day moving average of $321.93 and a 200 day moving average of $348.57.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.77 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.05%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 48.89%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total transaction of $3,468,574.71. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. This trade represents a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $361.09, for a total transaction of $902,725.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 19,737 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $7,126,833.33. This represents a 11.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 22,291 shares of company stock valued at $7,880,886. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.