First National Bank of Omaha Boosts Position in Accenture PLC $ACN

First National Bank of Omaha lifted its stake in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 60.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 55,707 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 20,918 shares during the period. First National Bank of Omaha’s holdings in Accenture were worth $14,981,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $2,146,995,000. Capital International Investors raised its holdings in Accenture by 41.1% in the 3rd quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 17,128,134 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,223,839,000 after buying an additional 4,984,930 shares during the period. Voloridge Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at about $311,694,000. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in Accenture by 15.9% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 8,173,338 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,192,907,000 after buying an additional 1,122,855 shares during the period. Finally, Capital World Investors purchased a new stake in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at about $268,578,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, CEO Atsushi Egawa sold 4,872 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.14, for a total transaction of $863,026.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 12,802 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,267,746.28. The trade was a 27.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on ACN. Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $215.00 to $195.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 1st. HSBC reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $220.00 to $210.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 14th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $320.00 to $240.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 16th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Oppenheimer set a $201.00 target price on Accenture in a research report on Monday. Seventeen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $259.89.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $169.95 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $113.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.92, a P/E/G ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 1.34. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $181.79 and a two-hundred day moving average of $221.83. Accenture PLC has a 1-year low of $155.82 and a 1-year high of $317.30.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Friday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.84 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $18.04 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.80 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.33% and a net margin of 10.61%.Accenture’s revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.82 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 13.87 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 9th were given a dividend of $1.63 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $6.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.8%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 53.40%.

Accenture Company Profile

Accenture is a global professional services company that provides a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. The firm works with organizations across industries to design and implement business transformation programs, deploy and manage enterprise technology, optimize operations, and develop customer and digital experiences. Its offerings encompass management and technology consulting, systems integration, application and infrastructure services, cloud migration and managed services, as well as security and analytics capabilities.

The company delivers industry- and function-specific solutions, combining consulting expertise with proprietary tools, platforms and partnerships with major technology vendors.