Park National Corp OH Decreases Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Park National Corp OH cut its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 6.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 130,355 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 8,664 shares during the quarter. Accenture makes up approximately 1.7% of Park National Corp OH’s holdings, making the stock its 11th largest holding. Park National Corp OH’s holdings in Accenture were worth $45,858,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC purchased a new position in Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at $28,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 607.1% during the 3rd quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter valued at about $39,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have weighed in on ACN. StockNews.com cut Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday. Barclays increased their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $385.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $385.04.

Accenture Trading Up 1.5 %

NYSE:ACN opened at $356.70 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $357.26 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $343.27. The company has a market cap of $223.22 billion, a PE ratio of 31.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.27 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.66%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 49.66%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total value of $170,948.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at $3,649,265.25. This represents a 4.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the insider now owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 36,673 shares of company stock worth $13,507,099. Company insiders own 0.02% 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.