Farmers National Bank buys 31 shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Farmers National Bank boosted its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN – Free Report) by 0.2% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 18,783 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 31 shares during the period. Accenture accounts for 1.7% of Farmers National Bank’s holdings, making the stock its 16th biggest holding. Farmers National Bank’s holdings in Accenture were worth $5,699,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 18.7% during the second quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 172,199 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $52,247,000 after purchasing an additional 27,168 shares in the last quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 11.9% in the first quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board now owns 36,750 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $12,393,000 after buying an additional 3,900 shares during the last quarter. Platform Technology Partners boosted its holdings in Accenture by 7.0% during the fourth quarter. Platform Technology Partners now owns 1,996 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $733,000 after buying an additional 131 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its position in Accenture by 13.3% in the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 183,446 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $63,584,000 after purchasing an additional 21,516 shares during the last quarter. Finally, M&G Plc purchased a new stake in Accenture in the first quarter valued at $19,007,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s shares.

The Wall Street analyst weighs in

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday. StockNews.com raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company. The company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $371.18, based on data from MarketBeat.

See our latest report on Accenture

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $352.04 on Wednesday. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $334.79 and a two hundred day moving average price of $320.07. The stock has a market cap of $220.62 billion, a PE ratio of 32.24, a PEG ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN – Get Your Free Report ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. Accenture’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted earnings per share of $2.71. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture raises dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a dividend of $5.92 on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.68%. This is an increase on Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.25%.

Accenture declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Inside buying and selling at Accenture

In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total transaction of $927,660.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 40,070 shares in the company, valued at $12,390,445.40. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed via this link. In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total transaction of $1,649,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed via this link. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total transaction of $927,660.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 40,070 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,390,445.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s shares.

About Accenture

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Accenture plc, a professional services company, provides strategy and consulting, industry X, song, technology and operations services worldwide. The company provides application services including agile transformation, DevOps, application modernization, enterprise architecture, software engineering and quality, data management; intelligent automation including 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); metaverse; and sustainability services.

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