Horizon Investments LLC Raises Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Horizon Investments LLC increased its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 14,873 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 256 shares during the period. Horizon Investments LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $5,210,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in Accenture during the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. lifted its position in Accenture by 62.2% during the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture during the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Finally, POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 64.2% during the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN stock opened at $326.25 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $204.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.37, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $362.51 and a 200 day simple moving average of $358.14. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. 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 (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.27 EPS. Accenture’s revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have weighed in on ACN shares. Baird R W raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. StockNews.com cut shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock 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, sixteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $388.04.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the company’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 completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. This represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.78, for a total transaction of $1,723,205.00. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 20,526 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,446,422.28. The trade was a 18.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190. 0.02% of the stock is owned by 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.