Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Bought by Security National Bank

Security National Bank boosted its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 29.4% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 13,883 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 3,157 shares during the quarter. Security National Bank’s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,812,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth $2,061,490,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main grew its holdings in Accenture by 100.0% during the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 1,751,531 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $614,615,000 after purchasing an additional 875,723 shares in the last quarter. Winslow Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $288,168,000. Generation Investment Management LLP bought a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $286,220,000. Finally, Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado bought a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $263,421,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Price Performance

Accenture stock traded down $3.66 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $303.51. 1,933,854 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,808,496. The business’s 50-day moving average is $300.89 and its 200-day moving average is $336.88. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $203.58 billion, a PE ratio of 27.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.43 and a beta of 1.21.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.15 by ($0.02). Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. The business had revenue of $16.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.55 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.19 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 11.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 11th will be paid a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 11th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.70%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 47.25%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the topic of several recent research reports. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $395.00 to $340.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $409.00 to $295.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 15th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Wedbush decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $350.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $352.74.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 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, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total value of $1,369,747.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 30,702 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,705,516.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 20,083 shares of company stock worth $6,302,285 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

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.