Boston Trust Walden Corp Trims Position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Boston Trust Walden Corp cut its holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 13.1% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 531,922 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 80,524 shares during the quarter. Accenture comprises approximately 1.2% of Boston Trust Walden Corp's portfolio, making the stock its 10th largest holding. Boston Trust Walden Corp owned about 0.08% of Accenture worth $165,981,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 62.2% during the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the period. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $30,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $30,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $31,000. Finally, Promus Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $34,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Trading Down 6.8%

NYSE:ACN traded down $20.72 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $285.66. 11,638,670 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,952,218. The firm has a market cap of $178.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.59, a PEG ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.33. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $306.94 and a 200 day simple moving average of $334.32. Accenture PLC has a 52-week low of $274.33 and a 52-week high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.48 and a quick ratio of 1.48.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.49% and a net margin of 11.43%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.13 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.07%. Accenture's payout ratio is 48.89%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total value of $1,003,982.14. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 17,237 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,857,041.86. This represents a 17.13% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. The trade was a 3.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Benchmark restated a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday. Mizuho lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, Piper Sandler reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $380.00.

Accenture Company 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.