Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Purchased by Freestone Capital Holdings LLC

Freestone Capital Holdings LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 40,722 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 463 shares during the period. Freestone Capital Holdings LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $14,326,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. Ethos Financial Group LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. Ethos Financial Group LLC now owns 1,470 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $520,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Townsend Asset Management Corp NC ADV lifted its stake in Accenture by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Townsend Asset Management Corp NC ADV now owns 8,844 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,111,000 after acquiring an additional 210 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $666,495,000. Promus Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $34,000. Finally, Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 12.6% during the 4th quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 10,367 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,647,000 after buying an additional 1,163 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently weighed in on ACN shares. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $388.96.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE:ACN opened at $348.27 on Thursday. 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 fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The stock has a market cap of $217.94 billion, a PE ratio of 29.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $366.41 and its 200-day simple moving average is $358.30.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total transaction of $3,468,574.71. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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. Insiders have sold 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture 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.