Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. Increases Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. lifted its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 12.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 10,367 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 1,163 shares during the period. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $3,647,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Arizona State Retirement System lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 181,260 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $63,765,000 after purchasing an additional 1,661 shares during the period. Aigen Investment Management LP acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $1,329,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 47.6% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,446 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $861,000 after purchasing an additional 789 shares during the period. M&T Bank Corp lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 4.9% in the 4th quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 240,673 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $84,667,000 after purchasing an additional 11,293 shares during the period. Finally, Atria Investments Inc increased its holdings in Accenture by 4.2% in the 4th quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 78,450 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $27,598,000 after acquiring an additional 3,152 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on ACN. Wolfe Research raised shares of Accenture from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $425.00 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Robert W. Baird reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $388.96.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total transaction of $3,468,574.71. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. This represents a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total transaction of $91,514.72. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 8,915 shares in the company, valued at $3,516,610.90. The trade was a 2.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture Stock Down 0.0 %

Shares of ACN traded down $0.16 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $341.68. 4,459,862 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,708,053. The company has a market cap of $213.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.66, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The stock's 50-day moving average is $365.74 and its 200-day moving average is $358.46.

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