Bahl & Gaynor Inc. Sells 17,118 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Bahl & Gaynor Inc. reduced its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 4.1% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 404,005 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 17,118 shares during the period. Bahl & Gaynor Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $142,125,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. raised its holdings in Accenture by 5.7% in the 4th quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $182,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the period. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 62.2% in the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,951 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,871,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. boosted its stake in Accenture by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. now owns 655 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $230,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the period. Finally, TCW Group Inc. grew its holdings in Accenture by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. TCW Group Inc. now owns 11,501 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,065,000 after buying an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total value of $527,200.98. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,278,431.38. The trade was a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total value of $3,468,574.71. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,677,625.26. This trade represents a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190 in the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $344.57 on Tuesday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $366.99 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $358.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $215.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.91, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.27 EPS. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Robert W. Baird reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $388.96.

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.