City Holding Co. Has $3.60 Million Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

City Holding Co. lessened its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 9.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 10,231 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 1,109 shares during the period. City Holding Co.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $3,599,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp raised its stake in Accenture by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,400,836 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $9,685,648,000 after buying an additional 471,792 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc raised its position in shares of Accenture by 1.4% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,887,266 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,786,256,000 after purchasing an additional 80,514 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 378.9% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,491,736 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,941,219,000 after purchasing an additional 4,345,039 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,823,754 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,705,100,000 after purchasing an additional 56,937 shares during the period. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 44.7% during the 2nd quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,709,989 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $822,238,000 after purchasing an additional 837,677 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently weighed in on ACN. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $385.04.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN traded up $1.77 during trading on Monday, hitting $352.33. The stock had a trading volume of 4,061,199 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,320,392. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The firm has a market cap of $220.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.56, a P/E/G ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $357.59 and a 200-day moving average price of $345.93. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. Accenture's revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.27 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $369.97, for a total value of $1,757,357.50. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 22,976 shares of the company's stock, valued at $8,500,430.72. This trade represents a 17.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total value of $250,477.14. Following the sale, the insider now owns 5,650 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,102,817. The trade was a 10.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 17,125 shares of company stock worth $6,184,820 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.02% 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.