Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Sold by Meridiem Investment Management Ltd.

Meridiem Investment Management Ltd. reduced its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 1.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 810,118 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 13,322 shares during the period. Accenture accounts for approximately 5.1% of Meridiem Investment Management Ltd.'s portfolio, making the stock its 7th biggest holding. Meridiem Investment Management Ltd. owned 0.13% of Accenture worth $285,166,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Accenture by 1.8% during the third 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 buying an additional 471,792 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 378.9% during the third 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 buying an additional 4,345,039 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.2% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,823,754 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,705,100,000 after purchasing an additional 56,937 shares during the period. Swedbank AB increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 47.5% in the fourth quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,763,690 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,324,029,000 after purchasing an additional 1,212,011 shares during the period. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.5% in the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 1,892,409 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $668,974,000 after purchasing an additional 28,491 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the company. BNP Paribas lowered Accenture from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $375.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Wolfe Research upgraded Accenture from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $425.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. UBS Group lifted their target price on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, 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 research report on Friday, December 6th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $387.22.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total value of $527,200.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at $3,278,431.38. The trade was a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was 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 of the company's stock, valued at $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN traded down $5.16 during trading on Thursday, reaching $385.06. The stock had a trading volume of 2,251,805 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,697,309. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $398.35. The business's 50-day moving average price is $366.87 and its 200 day moving average price is $355.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The stock has a market capitalization of $240.97 billion, a PE ratio of 32.30, a P/E/G ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.27 earnings per share. Accenture's quarterly revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict 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.