FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH Has $414,000 Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH grew its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 7.1% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,177 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 78 shares during the period. FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH’s holdings in Accenture were worth $414,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 1.8% in 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 acquiring an additional 471,792 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc raised its stake in shares of 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 valued at $1,786,256,000 after purchasing an additional 80,514 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 378.9% in 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 purchasing an additional 4,345,039 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in 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 worth $1,705,100,000 after buying an additional 56,937 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its stake in shares of 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 valued at $822,238,000 after buying an additional 837,677 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Trading Up 0.5 %

ACN stock opened at $352.33 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The company has a market cap of $220.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.56, a PEG ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 1.24. The business has a fifty day moving average of $357.65 and a 200-day moving average of $345.02.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

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

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on Accenture from $355.00 to $385.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Piper Sandler Companies reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Eight 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, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $385.04.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the general counsel now directly owns 22,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,500,430.72. This trade represents a 17.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 26,125 shares of company stock worth $9,570,260 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.