Welch & Forbes LLC Has $16.69 Million Stock Holdings in Accenture PLC $ACN

Welch & Forbes LLC lowered its position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 4.4% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 84,177 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 3,877 shares during the quarter. Welch & Forbes LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $16,692,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Midwest Trust Co grew its position in shares of Accenture by 104.6% in the 1st quarter. Midwest Trust Co now owns 67,548 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $13,394,000 after buying an additional 34,529 shares during the last quarter. Rossmore Private Capital lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 11.5% in the first quarter. Rossmore Private Capital now owns 21,772 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,317,000 after acquiring an additional 2,247 shares during the period. Darwin Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 27.1% in the first quarter. Darwin Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,148 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $228,000 after acquiring an additional 245 shares during the last quarter. Simplicity Wealth LLC increased its position in Accenture by 3.9% during the 1st quarter. Simplicity Wealth LLC now owns 6,108 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,211,000 after purchasing an additional 230 shares during the period. Finally, Osprey Private Wealth LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 16.6% in the 1st quarter. Osprey Private Wealth LLC now owns 24,934 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,944,000 after purchasing an additional 3,550 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on ACN. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $270.00 to $230.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Berenberg Bank cut their target price on Accenture from $273.00 to $220.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, June 17th. William Blair lowered Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Truist Financial lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $210.00 to $150.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “hold” rating and issued a $136.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $193.19.

Accenture Stock Down 2.8%

ACN stock traded down $3.87 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $135.19. 7,631,871 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 12,515,054. Accenture PLC has a 52 week low of $118.15 and a 52 week high of $291.09. The company has a market cap of $90.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.80, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.13. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $160.28 and its 200-day moving average price is $203.94. The company has a quick ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, June 18th. The information technology services provider reported $3.80 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.70 by $0.10. Accenture had a net margin of 10.66% and a return on equity of 26.47%. The company had revenue of $18.72 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $18.78 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.49 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.780-13.900 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 13.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 9th will be paid a $1.63 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 9th. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.8%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 52.08%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Tuesday, June 23rd that permits the company to repurchase $2.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the information technology services provider to buy up to 2.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, CEO Atsushi Egawa sold 4,872 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.14, for a total transaction of $863,026.08. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 12,802 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture 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.