MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB Has $19.51 Million Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB lessened its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 3.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 55,457 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 2,233 shares during the period. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB's holdings in Accenture were worth $19,509,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.0% during the third quarter. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,447 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $511,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the period. BSW Wealth Partners lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.7% in the third quarter. BSW Wealth Partners now owns 4,077 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,441,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the period. Slow Capital Inc. boosted its stake in Accenture by 0.3% during the third quarter. Slow Capital Inc. now owns 9,067 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $3,205,000 after buying an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,951 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $3,871,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Finally, NBC Securities Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 5,206 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,840,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Accenture stock traded up $1.77 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $352.33. The company had a trading volume of 4,061,199 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,320,392. The company has a 50 day moving average of $357.59 and a 200-day moving average of $345.93. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The firm has a market cap of $220.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.56, a PEG ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.27 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

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

Accenture announced that its board has approved a stock buyback 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 usually a sign that the company's board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the topic of several recent research reports. Robert W. Baird restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. BNP Paribas downgraded Accenture from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $375.00 target price for the company. in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Accenture from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $425.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $385.04.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 in the company, valued at $2,102,817. This represents a 10.64 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 22,976 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $8,500,430.72. The trade was a 17.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 17,125 shares of company stock worth $6,184,820 in the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.