Congress Asset Management Co. Has $24.03 Million Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Congress Asset Management Co. increased its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 1.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 68,296 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 886 shares during the quarter. Congress Asset Management Co.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $24,026,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 378.9% in 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 buying an additional 4,345,039 shares during the period. Swedbank AB boosted its holdings in Accenture by 47.5% in the fourth 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 during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in Accenture by 2,666.5% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 715,219 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $251,607,000 after purchasing an additional 689,366 shares during the last quarter. Holocene Advisors LP acquired a new position in Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at about $204,895,000. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 37,788.5% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 510,358 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $180,401,000 after purchasing an additional 509,011 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Accenture from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. BNP Paribas downgraded Accenture from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $375.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded Accenture from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $425.00 target price on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $387.22.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 961 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.47, for a total transaction of $340,645.67. Following the sale, the insider now owns 5,484 shares in the company, valued at $1,943,913.48. This represents a 14.91 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total transaction of $242,750.30. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 8,674 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,073,892.12. The trade was a 7.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Accenture Stock Down 1.3 %

ACN stock traded down $5.16 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $385.06. 2,251,805 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,697,309. The company has a market cap of $240.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.30, a PEG ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 1.24. The firm's 50-day moving average is $366.87 and its 200-day moving average is $355.57. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced 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 return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.27 EPS. Accenture's revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. 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.