German American Bancorp Inc. Purchases 47 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

German American Bancorp Inc. grew its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 5.3% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 927 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 47 shares during the period. German American Bancorp Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $328,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.0% during the third quarter. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,447 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $511,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. BSW Wealth Partners grew its stake in Accenture by 0.7% in the third quarter. BSW Wealth Partners now owns 4,077 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,441,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Slow Capital Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Slow Capital Inc. now owns 9,067 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,205,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 5,206 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,840,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Conscious Wealth Investments LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 0.4% in the third quarter. Conscious Wealth Investments LLC now owns 7,744 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,870,000 after acquiring an additional 31 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total transaction of $250,477.14. Following the sale, the insider now owns 5,650 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,102,817. The trade was a 10.64 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661 in the last quarter. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

Accenture stock opened at $357.04 on Thursday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $356.03 and its 200 day simple moving average is $328.39. The stock has a market cap of $223.21 billion, a PE ratio of 31.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.71 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.66%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 51.79%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on ACN. StockNews.com cut shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Piper Sandler Companies reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, September 20th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $368.23.

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.