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

Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT cut its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.7% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund 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 Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Annapolis Financial Services LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 507.7% in the first quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 79 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the period. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 2nd quarter worth $28,000. Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, Atwood & Palmer Inc. increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 214.8% during the first quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. now owns 85 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total transaction of $2,696,402.25. Following the transaction, the general counsel now owns 22,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,564,161.45. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 40,070 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,390,445.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total value of $2,696,402.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 22,849 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,564,161.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 21,421 shares of company stock valued at $6,912,635. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have issued reports on ACN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Accenture from $330.00 to $376.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 6th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on Accenture from $340.00 to $275.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on Accenture from $395.00 to $340.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Susquehanna decreased their price target on Accenture from $360.00 to $350.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, June 21st. Finally, Mizuho decreased their price target on Accenture from $398.00 to $350.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, June 18th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $354.91.

Accenture Stock Down 4.9 %

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $336.93 on Wednesday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $329.94 and a two-hundred day moving average of $322.59. The stock has a market cap of $211.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.85, a PEG ratio of 3.82 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 EPS 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 business had revenue of $16.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.55 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.19 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 11th were paid a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend 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.