Kestra Investment Management LLC Boosts Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Kestra Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 11.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 8,066 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 809 shares during the period. Kestra Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,837,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 378.9% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,491,736 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,941,219,000 after purchasing an additional 4,345,039 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB lifted its holdings in Accenture by 47.5% in the 4th quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,763,690 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,324,029,000 after buying an additional 1,212,011 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 2,666.5% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 715,219 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $251,607,000 after buying an additional 689,366 shares during the last quarter. Holocene Advisors LP bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter valued at approximately $204,895,000. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 37,788.5% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 510,358 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $180,401,000 after acquiring an additional 509,011 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. StockNews.com upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.22.

Accenture Stock Down 0.4 %

NYSE ACN opened at $387.99 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $398.35. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $365.29 and its 200-day simple moving average is $354.45. The firm has a market cap of $242.80 billion, a PE ratio of 32.55, a P/E/G ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.27 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total value of $3,468,574.71. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,677,625.26. This trade represents a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.