CHICAGO TRUST Co NA Cuts Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

CHICAGO TRUST Co NA decreased its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 8,703 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 247 shares during the period. CHICAGO TRUST Co NA’s holdings in Accenture were worth $3,062,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Thoroughbred Financial Services LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 12.0% in the second quarter. Thoroughbred Financial Services LLC now owns 4,899 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,486,000 after purchasing an additional 524 shares during the period. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Accenture by 139.7% in the 2nd quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. now owns 8,630 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,619,000 after purchasing an additional 5,029 shares during the last quarter. Diversify Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the 2nd quarter valued at about $2,994,000. Wilkins Investment Counsel Inc. boosted its holdings in Accenture by 1.5% in the 2nd quarter. Wilkins Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 20,620 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $6,256,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rock Point Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 17.8% in the 2nd quarter. Rock Point Advisors LLC now owns 28,826 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $8,746,000 after purchasing an additional 4,357 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Wolfe Research raised shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $385.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. TD Cowen raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Finally, BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $385.04.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $369.97, for a total transaction of $1,757,357.50. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 22,976 shares in the company, 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. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 36,673 shares of company stock valued at $13,507,099. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE:ACN traded down $1.21 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $348.58. 592,933 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,411,170. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $357.82 and its 200 day simple moving average is $344.30. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The company has a market cap of $218.14 billion, a PE ratio of 30.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.27 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.70%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Accenture announced that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.