Hills Bank & Trust Co Reduces Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Hills Bank & Trust Co cut its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,476 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 34 shares during the period. Hills Bank & Trust Co’s holdings in Accenture were worth $869,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 0.3% during the third 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 in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew 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 valued at $4,089,485,000 after acquiring an additional 565,505 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in 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 worth $3,388,856,000 after purchasing an additional 720,647 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 5.6% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 8,285,864 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,544,672,000 after purchasing an additional 443,004 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,466,684 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,556,676,000 after purchasing an additional 68,635 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently weighed in on ACN. TD Cowen cut their target price on Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Redburn Atlantic increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, April 27th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on Accenture from $385.00 to $375.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.00.

Accenture Stock Down 1.7 %

Shares of Accenture stock traded down $5.43 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $306.56. 3,238,071 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,507,225. The business has a 50-day moving average of $338.85 and a 200 day moving average of $342.14. The stock has a market capitalization of $205.62 billion, a PE ratio of 27.80, a PEG ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.21. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $264.42 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be issued a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.68%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 46.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value of $1,536,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total transaction of $2,657,040.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at $5,937,488.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 28,083 shares of company stock valued at $8,959,325. Company insiders own 0.07% 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.