Birch Hill Investment Advisors LLC Acquires 2,000 Shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Birch Hill Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 7.0% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 30,467 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 2,000 shares during the quarter. Birch Hill Investment Advisors LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $9,507,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Accenture by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,394,657 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $21,246,236,000 after purchasing an additional 392,183 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,528,348 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $4,750,021,000 after purchasing an additional 136,665 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its position in shares of Accenture by 16.8% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $4,325,526,000 after purchasing an additional 1,770,024 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in Accenture by 22.8% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,283,225,000 after acquiring an additional 2,260,740 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors grew its position in Accenture by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 8,513,140 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $2,994,922,000 after acquiring an additional 181,449 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Barclays reduced their price target on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Baird R W upgraded Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Mizuho dropped their price objective on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $380.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total value of $812,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 15,882 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,161,650. This trade represents a 13.60% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total value of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 9,965 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,806,442.95. The trade was a 18.65% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Accenture Stock Down 1.9%

Shares of ACN traded down $5.92 on Wednesday, reaching $306.11. The stock had a trading volume of 4,590,591 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,950,926. The firm has a market capitalization of $191.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.15 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a current ratio of 1.48. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $306.40 and a 200-day simple moving average of $334.90. Accenture PLC has a 12-month low of $275.01 and a 12-month high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.49% and a net margin of 11.43%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.77 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.93%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's payout ratio is 48.89%.

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.