Bahl & Gaynor Inc. Sells 6,996 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Bahl & Gaynor Inc. lowered its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. 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. owned approximately 0.07% of Accenture worth $158,148,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in Accenture by 7.0% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,034,666 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,388,856,000 after buying an additional 720,647 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in Accenture by 34.7% in the 3rd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,374,492 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $729,230,000 after buying an additional 611,376 shares in the last quarter. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd grew its stake in Accenture by 71.4% in the 4th quarter. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd now owns 1,388,701 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $487,309,000 after buying an additional 578,610 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 33,484.1% in the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 567,572 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $199,167,000 after buying an additional 565,882 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,316,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,089,485,000 after purchasing an additional 565,505 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of 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 firm has a market capitalization of $206.59 billion, a PE ratio of 27.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 1.19. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $349.66 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $341.94.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.69 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict 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. Investors of record on Thursday, April 11th will be given a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 46.78%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. Susquehanna reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $360.00 price objective (down previously from $400.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, Bank of America increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.00.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at $5,937,488.01. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 851 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.77, for a total value of $316,376.27. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 50,737 shares in the company, valued at $18,862,494.49. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 17,877 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,937,488.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 32,490 shares of company stock worth $10,592,664. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About Accenture

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.