Wilkins Investment Counsel Inc. Grows Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Wilkins Investment Counsel Inc. increased its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 20,419 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 122 shares during the quarter. Wilkins Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $7,183,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 378.9% in 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 worth $1,941,219,000 after acquiring an additional 4,345,039 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $666,495,000. Swedbank AB boosted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 1,212,011 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 51,837.3% in 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 period. Finally, Amundi boosted its stake in Accenture by 27.9% in 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 period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on Accenture from $429.00 to $396.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $384.45.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN stock opened at $324.52 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. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $361.19 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $357.78. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The firm has a market cap of $203.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.22, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its 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 return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.27 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total value of $91,514.72. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 8,915 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,516,610.90. This represents a 2.54 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190 over the last quarter. Company 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.