Accenture PLC $ACN Shares Purchased by Amica Mutual Insurance Co.

Amica Mutual Insurance Co. increased its holdings in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 31.6% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 30,051 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 7,220 shares during the period. Amica Mutual Insurance Co.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $8,063,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. Running Oak Capital LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 14.3% in the 3rd quarter. Running Oak Capital LLC now owns 57,541 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $14,190,000 after purchasing an additional 7,190 shares during the period. Weitz Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Accenture by 28.8% in the 3rd quarter. Weitz Investment Management Inc. now owns 160,550 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $39,592,000 after purchasing an additional 35,900 shares during the period. Teacher Retirement System of Texas boosted its stake in Accenture by 27.7% in the 4th quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 282,340 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $75,752,000 after purchasing an additional 61,314 shares during the period. Public Sector Pension Investment Board boosted its stake in Accenture by 180.4% in the 3rd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 404,680 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $99,794,000 after purchasing an additional 260,357 shares during the period. Finally, Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 197.2% in the 4th quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 141,484 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $37,960,000 after purchasing an additional 93,880 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, CEO Atsushi Egawa sold 4,872 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.14, for a total transaction of $863,026.08. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 12,802 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,267,746.28. The trade was a 27.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on ACN shares. Piper Sandler set a $282.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. TD Cowen cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $282.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 16th. Truist Financial cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $317.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 10th. Citigroup cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $266.00 to $215.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 25th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $320.00 to $240.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 16th. Seventeen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $274.50.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $187.32 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 1.34. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $185.71 and its 200-day simple moving average is $226.50. Accenture PLC has a twelve month low of $155.82 and a twelve month high of $321.77. The firm has a market cap of $124.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.08.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Friday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.84 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $18.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.80 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.61% and a return on equity of 26.33%. The firm’s revenue was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.82 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 13.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 9th were paid a $1.63 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $6.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.5%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 53.40%.

Accenture Profile

Accenture is a global professional services company that provides a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. The firm works with organizations across industries to design and implement business transformation programs, deploy and manage enterprise technology, optimize operations, and develop customer and digital experiences. Its offerings encompass management and technology consulting, systems integration, application and infrastructure services, cloud migration and managed services, as well as security and analytics capabilities.

The company delivers industry- and function-specific solutions, combining consulting expertise with proprietary tools, platforms and partnerships with major technology vendors.