Busey Bank Buys 1,042 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Busey Bank raised its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 72,670 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,042 shares during the quarter. Accenture comprises about 0.8% of Busey Bank’s holdings, making the stock its 27th largest position. Busey Bank’s holdings in Accenture were worth $25,565,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth $34,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 607.1% in the third 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, Berbice Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $35,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.78, for a total value of $1,723,205.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 20,526 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,446,422.28. This represents a 18.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, 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 value of $134,437.50. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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 three months, insiders have sold 16,446 shares of company stock valued at $5,852,848. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the company. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price target for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $383.74.

Accenture Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $375.13 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $358.27 and its 200-day moving average price is $349.02. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The stock has a market capitalization of $234.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.47, a P/E/G ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.27 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.58%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

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.