Chesley Taft & Associates LLC Has $32.10 Million Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Chesley Taft & Associates LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.0% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 92,623 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 1,845 shares during the period. Accenture accounts for about 1.6% of Chesley Taft & Associates LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 15th biggest position. Chesley Taft & Associates LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $32,104,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Operose Advisors LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the third quarter worth approximately $203,000. Milestone Asset Management LLC grew its position in Accenture by 5.5% in the 3rd quarter. Milestone Asset Management LLC now owns 889 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $274,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the period. Mather Group LLC. raised its holdings in Accenture by 19.3% during the third quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 11,852 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,640,000 after buying an additional 1,914 shares during the last quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 40.3% in the third 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Treasurer of the State of North Carolina grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.4% during the third quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 286,711 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $88,052,000 after buying an additional 1,143 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value of $1,536,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,208,606.78. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total value of $1,369,747.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 30,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,705,516.24. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,208,606.78. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 20,083 shares of company stock worth $6,302,285. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN traded down $1.52 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $303.10. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,162,001 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,821,270. The company has a market cap of $203.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.76, a PEG ratio of 3.43 and a beta of 1.21. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $300.69 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $336.65. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.15 by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $16.47 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.55 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. The company’s revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.19 EPS. Research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 11th will be issued a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 47.25%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have issued reports on ACN. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price target for the company from $409.00 to $295.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 15th. StockNews.com downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, April 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on Accenture in a research note on Monday. They set a “neutral” rating and a $335.00 price objective on the stock. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $375.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, June 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered shares of Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $382.00 to $300.00 in a research report on Wednesday. Twelve 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, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $352.74.

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.