Essential Planning LLC. Buys New Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Essential Planning LLC. bought a new stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm bought 7,202 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,591,000.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of ACN. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 378.9% during the 3rd 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 valued at $1,941,219,000 after buying an additional 4,345,039 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $666,495,000. Swedbank AB increased its holdings in Accenture by 47.5% during 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 purchasing an additional 1,212,011 shares during the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 51,837.3% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 860,601 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $302,751,000 after purchasing an additional 858,944 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Amundi increased its holdings in Accenture by 27.9% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 3,790,069 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,353,909,000 after purchasing an additional 826,038 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $388.96.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total transaction of $91,514.72. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 8,915 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,516,610.90. The trade was a 2.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total value of $3,468,574.71. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares in the company, 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 90 days, insiders have sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Down 1.1 %

Shares of ACN stock opened at $324.25 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $398.35. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $364.36 and a two-hundred day moving average of $358.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $202.91 billion, a PE ratio of 27.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

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

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.