Greenleaf Trust Acquires 323 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Greenleaf Trust boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 24,646 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 323 shares during the period. Greenleaf Trust’s holdings in Accenture were worth $8,649,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of ACN. Schear Investment Advisers LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Schear Investment Advisers LLC now owns 3,651 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,281,000 after buying an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC now owns 18,371 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $6,447,000 after purchasing an additional 228 shares in the last quarter. Davidson Trust Co. raised its position in Accenture by 8.6% in the 4th quarter. Davidson Trust Co. now owns 1,521 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $534,000 after purchasing an additional 121 shares during the last quarter. HTLF Bank acquired a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth $440,000. Finally, Fonville Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $618,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have commented on ACN shares. StockNews.com lowered shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Piper Sandler raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Mizuho reissued a “buy” rating and set a $398.00 price target (down from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.00.

Accenture Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of ACN traded up $0.88 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $316.88. 3,381,158 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,390,528. The company has a market cap of $212.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.72, a PEG ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.19. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $261.68 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $356.30 and its 200 day simple moving average is $341.77.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.69 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be given a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 46.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 3,010 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.80, for a total value of $1,119,118.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,193 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,417,957.40. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 3,010 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.80, for a total value of $1,119,118.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,193 shares in the company, valued at $3,417,957.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.81, for a total value of $1,859,050.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 20,316 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,553,691.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 35,500 shares of company stock worth $12,276,123. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

About Accenture

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.