HTLF Bank Acquires New Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

HTLF Bank bought a new position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 1,253 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $440,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 58,434,025 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $17,945,673,000 after purchasing an additional 184,541 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in Accenture by 2.7% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 26,453,884 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $7,560,765,000 after purchasing an additional 704,657 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 14.9% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 16,642,841 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,440,976,000 after buying an additional 2,163,582 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 4.4% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,316,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,089,485,000 after acquiring an additional 565,505 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 7.0% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,034,666 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,388,856,000 after purchasing an additional 720,647 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently issued reports on ACN shares. TD Cowen reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Susquehanna restated a “neutral” rating and set a $360.00 price target (down from $400.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. Redburn Atlantic boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. Guggenheim started coverage on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $425.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.00.

Accenture Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of ACN opened at $316.88 on Friday. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $261.68 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The firm has a market cap of $212.54 billion, a PE ratio of 28.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 1.19. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $355.21 and its 200-day simple moving average is $341.83.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.69 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 11th will be issued a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.63%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 46.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 851 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.77, for a total transaction of $316,376.27. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 50,737 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,862,494.49. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.81, for a total transaction of $1,859,050.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 20,316 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,553,691.96. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 851 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.77, for a total transaction of $316,376.27. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 50,737 shares in the company, valued at $18,862,494.49. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 35,500 shares of company stock valued at $12,276,123. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.