Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Stake Lifted by Ieq Capital LLC

Ieq Capital LLC increased its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 4.9% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 46,737 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,169 shares during the period. Ieq Capital LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $16,442,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Freedom Day Solutions LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 5.9% in the fourth quarter. Freedom Day Solutions LLC now owns 10,140 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,567,000 after acquiring an additional 568 shares in the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 14.2% in the fourth quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 38,049 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $13,385,000 after acquiring an additional 4,739 shares in the last quarter. Financial Perspectives Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1,750.0% in the fourth quarter. Financial Perspectives Inc now owns 222 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $78,000 after acquiring an additional 210 shares in the last quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 8,742 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,075,000 after purchasing an additional 247 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northcape Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Northcape Wealth Management LLC now owns 6,032 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,122,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,497 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.48, for a total value of $885,136.56. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 28,866 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,232,419.68. This trade represents a 7.96 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % 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 insiders.

Accenture Stock Up 0.8 %

ACN stock opened at $390.72 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $366.87 and a two-hundred day moving average of $355.57. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $398.35. The company has a market cap of $244.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.78, a PEG ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 1.24. 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 announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.27 EPS. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently commented on ACN. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. UBS Group increased their target price 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 increased their target price 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. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.22.

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.