HM Payson & Co. Has $102.14 Million Holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

HM Payson & Co. lifted its holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 3.4% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 327,339 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after buying an additional 10,739 shares during the quarter. Accenture comprises 1.8% of HM Payson & Co.'s portfolio, making the stock its 16th biggest holding. HM Payson & Co. owned about 0.05% of Accenture worth $102,143,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Capital Research Global Investors raised its holdings in 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 worth $4,325,526,000 after purchasing an additional 1,770,024 shares during the last quarter. Alteri Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $321,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 47.6% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,446 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $861,000 after acquiring an additional 789 shares during the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 62.2% during the 1st quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 905 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $282,000 after acquiring an additional 347 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $317,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on ACN. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 23rd. Baird R W raised Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. UBS Group reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $395.00 price objective (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Finally, Barclays cut their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 23rd. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $370.71.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN traded up $2.29 on Friday, hitting $304.58. The company had a trading volume of 1,616,133 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,901,159. Accenture PLC has a 1-year low of $273.19 and a 1-year high of $398.35. The stock has a market cap of $190.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.25, a P/E/G ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 1.29. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $309.55 and a 200 day moving average price of $329.68. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates 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 analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.13 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect 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. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.94%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is 47.13%.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 5,364 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the 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 sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 15,882 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,161,650. This trade represents a 13.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

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.