Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Bahl & Gaynor Inc.

Bahl & Gaynor Inc. decreased its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.5% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 450,680 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 6,996 shares during the period. Bahl & Gaynor Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $158,148,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Chilton Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 180.0% during the 4th quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the period. BluePath Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth about $31,000. Halpern Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth about $31,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth about $50,000. Finally, Valley National Advisers Inc. raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 40.3% during the 3rd quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 167 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $51,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total transaction of $2,657,040.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,937,488.01. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total value of $2,657,040.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at $5,937,488.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 32,490 shares of company stock worth $10,592,664. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have weighed in on ACN. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Mizuho reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $398.00 price objective (down previously from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. BNP Paribas upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 17th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.00.

Accenture Trading Down 0.3 %

NYSE:ACN opened at $308.01 on Friday. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $261.68 and a 12 month high of $387.51. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $349.66 and a two-hundred day moving average of $341.94. The firm has a market cap of $206.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 1.19.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.85 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.69 EPS. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be paid a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.68%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 46.78%.

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.