Cascade Financial Partners LLC Trims Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Cascade Financial Partners LLC lowered its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.5% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 3,222 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 50 shares during the period. Cascade Financial Partners LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,134,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Swedbank AB grew its stake in Accenture by 16.6% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,551,679 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $901,967,000 after acquiring an additional 363,401 shares in the last quarter. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 49.6% during the third quarter. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC now owns 1,101 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $389,000 after purchasing an additional 365 shares during the last quarter. Kennebec Savings Bank bought a new stake in Accenture during the third quarter valued at approximately $75,000. Entropy Technologies LP bought a new stake in Accenture during the third quarter valued at approximately $745,000. Finally, Harbour Investments Inc. lifted its position in Accenture by 14.1% during the third quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 1,143 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $404,000 after purchasing an additional 141 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Down 2.2 %

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $327.79 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $205.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.50, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $398.35. The company has a 50-day moving average of $364.92 and a 200 day moving average of $358.63.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on ACN. Robert W. Baird reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $388.96.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the sale, the insider now owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 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 transaction of $3,468,574.71. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. The trade was a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.