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

Horizon Investments LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 14,873 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 256 shares during the period. Horizon Investments LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $5,210,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Advisors Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Accenture by 5.2% during the 4th quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 45,540 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $16,021,000 after buying an additional 2,240 shares during the period. Kensington Investment Counsel LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 6.7% in the 4th quarter. Kensington Investment Counsel LLC now owns 14,185 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,990,000 after purchasing an additional 893 shares during the last quarter. Guardian Partners Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $594,000. Leelyn Smith LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Leelyn Smith LLC now owns 12,987 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,569,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BlackDiamond Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 6.6% in the 4th quarter. BlackDiamond Wealth Management LLC now owns 787 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $277,000 after purchasing an additional 49 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Robert W. Baird raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Piper Sandler dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $429.00 to $396.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $388.04.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total transaction of $91,514.72. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 8,915 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,516,610.90. This trade represents a 2.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Up 2.3 %

ACN stock opened at $326.25 on Tuesday. 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 one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $398.35. The company has a fifty day moving average of $362.51 and a 200-day moving average of $358.14. The stock has a market capitalization of $204.16 billion, a PE ratio of 27.37, a price-to-earnings-growth 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 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $3.27 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current 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.