Rockland Trust Co. Grows Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Rockland Trust Co. boosted its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 3.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 68,470 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 2,107 shares during the quarter. Accenture comprises about 1.2% of Rockland Trust Co.'s portfolio, making the stock its 26th biggest position. Rockland Trust Co.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $24,087,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Accenture by 1.8% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,400,836 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $9,685,648,000 after purchasing an additional 471,792 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings in Accenture by 1.4% in 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 acquiring an additional 80,514 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 378.9% during the third 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 worth $1,941,219,000 after acquiring an additional 4,345,039 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.2% during the third 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 acquiring an additional 56,937 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 44.7% in 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 hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the topic of a number of research reports. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Piper Sandler Companies reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $329.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, September 20th. BNP Paribas cut Accenture from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $375.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, TD Cowen upgraded Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their price target for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $385.04.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 5,149 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 36,673 shares of company stock worth $13,507,099. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN traded up $0.46 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $349.45. 2,615,878 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,611,574. The company has a market cap of $218.68 billion, a PE ratio of 30.57, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $357.98 and its 200-day simple moving average is $344.94.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $3.27 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is presently 49.66%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share 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 buy up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication 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.