Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT Sells 609 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT decreased its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 35,826 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 609 shares during the period. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT’s holdings in Accenture were worth $10,870,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of ACN. TrinityPoint Wealth LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. TrinityPoint Wealth LLC now owns 3,646 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,279,000 after purchasing an additional 125 shares in the last quarter. Focus Financial Network Inc. ADV bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $4,594,000. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 11.9% during the 1st quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board now owns 36,750 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $12,393,000 after acquiring an additional 3,900 shares during the period. Platform Technology Partners lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 7.0% during the 4th quarter. Platform Technology Partners now owns 1,996 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $733,000 after acquiring an additional 131 shares during the period. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 13.3% during the 1st quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 183,446 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $63,584,000 after acquiring an additional 21,516 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total value of $927,660.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 40,070 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,390,445.40. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total value of $1,649,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total transaction of $927,660.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 40,070 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,390,445.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the topic of several research reports. Mizuho lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $398.00 to $350.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, June 18th. Piper Sandler Companies cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $320.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 17th. TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $293.00 to $321.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $395.00 to $340.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, Piper Sandler cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $320.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 17th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $354.91.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $336.93 on Wednesday. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $211.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.85, a P/E/G ratio of 3.82 and a beta of 1.24. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $329.94 and its 200-day moving average price is $322.59.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.15 by ($0.02). Accenture had a net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. The company had revenue of $16.47 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.55 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.19 EPS. The business’s revenue was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 11th were issued a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.25%.

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.