Tortoise Investment Management LLC Increases Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Tortoise Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,116 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 38 shares during the period. Tortoise Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $393,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in Accenture during the third quarter valued at about $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. boosted its holdings in Accenture by 62.2% in the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter worth about $30,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth about $30,000. Finally, POM Investment Strategies LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 64.2% in the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,845,916.50. This represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.78, for a total value of $1,723,205.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 20,526 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,446,422.28. This trade represents a 18.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. UBS Group raised their price target on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Wolfe Research raised Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 target price for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $388.96.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $335.34 on Tuesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $365.40 and its two-hundred day moving average is $358.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $209.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. 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 fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35.

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

Accenture Company 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.