Eastern Bank Purchases 41,056 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Eastern Bank lifted its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1,421.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 43,944 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 41,056 shares during the quarter. Eastern Bank’s holdings in Accenture were worth $15,533,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in ACN. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 14.4% during the 1st quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC now owns 45,551 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $15,788,000 after purchasing an additional 5,739 shares during the last quarter. Annex Advisory Services LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 12.3% during the 1st quarter. Annex Advisory Services LLC now owns 842 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $292,000 after purchasing an additional 92 shares during the last quarter. Riverview Trust Co acquired a new stake in Accenture during the 1st quarter valued at $112,000. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Accenture during the 1st quarter valued at $217,000. Finally, DLK Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 4.3% during the 1st quarter. DLK Investment Management LLC now owns 7,462 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,586,000 after purchasing an additional 306 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.24, for a total value of $1,866,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,593 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,566,411.32. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total transaction of $170,948.50. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,649,265.25. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.24, for a total value of $1,866,200.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 17,593 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,566,411.32. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 10,548 shares of company stock valued at $3,936,838 over the last ninety days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on ACN. UBS Group lifted their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. StockNews.com raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. TD Cowen raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $371.18.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN traded down $3.67 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $372.36. 731,610 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,724,882. The stock has a market capitalization of $233.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.43, a P/E/G ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $346.72 and its 200 day moving average price is $321.91. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.71 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.79 EPS for the current year.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business 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 $1.48 dividend. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.59%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 54.21%.

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.