Kestra Investment Management LLC Buys 809 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Kestra Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 11.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 8,066 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 809 shares during the quarter. Kestra Investment Management LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $2,837,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 378.9% in 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 worth $1,941,219,000 after acquiring an additional 4,345,039 shares during the period. Swedbank AB lifted its stake 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 buying an additional 1,212,011 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in Accenture by 2,666.5% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 715,219 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $251,607,000 after buying an additional 689,366 shares during the period. Holocene Advisors LP acquired a new position in Accenture in the third quarter valued at approximately $204,895,000. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 37,788.5% in the third 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 buying an additional 509,011 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,497 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.48, for a total value of $885,136.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 28,866 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $10,232,419.68. This trade represents a 7.96 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total value of $91,514.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 8,915 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,516,610.90. This trade represents a 2.54 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of Accenture stock traded down $20.49 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $364.35. 3,747,836 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,728,130. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $398.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $228.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.57, a PEG ratio of 3.46 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $367.48 and a 200-day simple moving average of $356.12. 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 the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.27 EPS. The business's revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have issued reports on ACN shares. Wolfe Research raised Accenture from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $425.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Piper Sandler upped their target price on Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, BNP Paribas lowered Accenture from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $375.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $387.22.

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.