Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Holdings Boosted by HM Payson & Co.

HM Payson & Co. boosted its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 2.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 316,600 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 8,364 shares during the period. Accenture accounts for 1.9% of HM Payson & Co.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 10th biggest holding. HM Payson & Co. owned 0.05% of Accenture worth $111,377,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,400,836 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $9,685,648,000 after acquiring an additional 471,792 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 378.9% during 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 valued at $1,941,219,000 after acquiring an additional 4,345,039 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,964,480 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,746,455,000 after acquiring an additional 140,726 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 47.5% during the 4th quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,763,690 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,324,029,000 after acquiring an additional 1,212,011 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $666,495,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently commented on ACN. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. StockNews.com raised shares of Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective 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. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $388.96.

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Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the company's 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. The trade was a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction of $527,200.98. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,278,431.38. The trade was a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190. Insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture Stock Down 0.0 %

Shares of ACN opened at $341.68 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $365.74 and a 200-day simple moving average of $358.27. The firm 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. 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 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.27 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

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.

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