First Hawaiian Bank Purchases 307 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

First Hawaiian Bank raised its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 14.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,444 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 307 shares during the period. First Hawaiian Bank’s holdings in Accenture were worth $860,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 607.1% in the 3rd quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth $39,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth $51,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Down 2.2 %

NYSE ACN opened at $349.93 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $218.98 billion, a PE ratio of 30.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $357.82 and a 200 day moving average price of $343.77.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. Accenture’s revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.27 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Announces Dividend

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 issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 49.66%.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total transaction of $3,385,440.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 20,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,645,075.84. This trade represents a 30.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total transaction of $1,899,689.80. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,825 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,490,266.50. The trade was a 11.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 36,673 shares of company stock valued at $13,507,099 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have commented on ACN shares. BNP Paribas cut shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised 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 note on Wednesday. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $385.04.

Accenture Company 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.