Burke & Herbert Bank & Trust Co. Lowers Stock Holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Burke & Herbert Bank & Trust Co. trimmed its holdings in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 35.3% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,063 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 580 shares during the period. Burke & Herbert Bank & Trust Co.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $332,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Capital A Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Finally, Inlight Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $32,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Trading Up 0.8%

Shares of ACN opened at $304.58 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $190.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 1.29. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $309.55 and its 200 day simple moving average is $329.56. Accenture PLC has a twelve month low of $273.19 and a twelve month high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.55% and a net margin of 11.61%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.13 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.94%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 47.13%.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 5,364 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,512,111.60. This trade represents a 3.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total value of $812,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 15,882 shares in the company, valued at $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. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on ACN shares. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 price target for the company in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Barclays cut their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $395.00 price objective (up from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Finally, Baird R W upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $370.71.

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.