New England Research & Management Inc. Has $322,000 Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

New England Research & Management Inc. decreased its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 10.5% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,060 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 125 shares during the quarter. New England Research & Management Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $322,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Accenture by 8.2% during the fourth quarter. Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 357 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $125,000 after acquiring an additional 27 shares during the last quarter. Addison Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 3,181 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,116,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Searle & CO. increased its holdings in Accenture by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Searle & CO. now owns 803 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $282,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC raised its position in Accenture by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC now owns 1,363 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $478,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the period. Finally, IronBridge Private Wealth LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. IronBridge Private Wealth LLC now owns 1,235 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $433,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total value of $472,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 38,570 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,149,550. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total transaction of $472,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,570 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,149,550. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the general counsel now owns 22,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,564,161.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently commented on ACN shares. Bank of America dropped their price objective on Accenture from $419.00 to $365.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Wedbush lowered their price objective on Accenture from $400.00 to $350.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, April 27th. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $350.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 17th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on shares of Accenture in a report on Monday, June 24th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $335.00 target price on the stock. Eleven equities 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 presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $351.82.

Accenture Trading Up 1.6 %

Shares of Accenture stock traded up $5.10 on Tuesday, hitting $318.84. 2,284,242 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,922,226. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $305.63 and its 200 day simple moving average is $330.43. The company has a market cap of $199.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.20, a P/E/G ratio of 3.66 and a beta of 1.23.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.15 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $16.47 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.55 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.19 EPS. Analysts predict 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 will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 11th will be paid a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.62%. The ex-dividend date is 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.