Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. Purchases 6,256 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. boosted its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 381,546 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,256 shares during the quarter. Accenture comprises approximately 1.3% of Johnson Investment Counsel Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 14th largest holding. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. owned about 0.06% of Accenture worth $134,224,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 7.0% in the 4th quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 83,930 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $29,526,000 after acquiring an additional 5,465 shares during the last quarter. FWG Holdings LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 12.8% during the 4th quarter. FWG Holdings LLC now owns 1,757 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $677,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 16.6% in the fourth quarter. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC now owns 1,610 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $566,000 after purchasing an additional 229 shares in the last quarter. Enterprise Financial Services Corp boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 4.1% during the fourth quarter. Enterprise Financial Services Corp now owns 2,402 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $845,000 after buying an additional 95 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Argentarii LLC bought a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $422,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total value of $242,750.30. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 8,674 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,073,892.12. The trade was a 7.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were 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 owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,677,625.26. This represents a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 in the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently issued reports on ACN. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Robert W. Baird reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, 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 report on Friday, December 20th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $388.96.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $341.68 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The company has a fifty day moving average of $365.74 and a 200-day moving average of $358.64. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $398.35. The company has a market capitalization of $213.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.66, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced 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 company had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.27 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.