Bahl & Gaynor Inc. Increases Position in Accenture PLC $ACN

Key Points

• Bahl & Gaynor Inc. increased its stake in Accenture PLC by 2.8% in the first quarter, owning approximately 0.07% of the company, worth about $129.6 million.
• CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of Accenture at an average price of $282.45, reducing her ownership by 21.73% to approximately 8,109 shares.
• Accenture reported $3.49 EPS in its last quarter, exceeding analysts' expectations, and raised its full-year EPS guidance for FY 2025 to between $12.770 - $12.890.

Bahl & Gaynor Inc. increased its stake in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 2.8% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 415,214 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after buying an additional 11,209 shares during the quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. owned 0.07% of Accenture worth $129,563,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Accenture by 5.7% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 63,814,234 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $19,912,594,000 after buying an additional 3,419,577 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in Accenture by 63.9% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,953,621 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $2,793,889,000 after purchasing an additional 3,490,569 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in Accenture by 10.7% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,582,344 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $2,667,393,000 after purchasing an additional 732,769 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its stake in Accenture by 3.5% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 6,766,369 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $2,111,378,000 after purchasing an additional 228,939 shares during the period. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 9.9% in the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 6,036,845 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $2,123,702,000 after purchasing an additional 545,109 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $141,170.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,283 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $644,582.22. The trade was a 17.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $57,315.02. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 5,249 shares in the company, valued at $1,482,002.66. This trade represents a 3.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 2,954 shares of company stock worth $834,280. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN traded up $1.97 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $257.39. 2,238,097 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,549,882. The company's 50-day moving average is $275.37 and its two-hundred day moving average is $304.72. The company has a market cap of $161.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.49, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a quick ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Accenture PLC has a 12-month low of $236.67 and a 12-month high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.55% and a net margin of 11.61%.The firm had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $17.26 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.13 EPS. The company's revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Accenture has set its Q4 2025 guidance at EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 12.770-12.890 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th were paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is 47.13%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. HSBC initiated coverage on Accenture in a research note on Monday, July 28th. They issued a "reduce" rating and a $240.00 price objective for the company. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Accenture to a "moderate sell" rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. UBS Group restated a "buy" rating and issued a $395.00 price objective (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Evercore ISI began coverage on Accenture in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $330.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Mizuho set a $348.00 price target on Accenture and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $358.08.

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.