Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 1,894,581 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $666,495,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. owned about 0.30% of Accenture at the end of the most recent reporting period.
Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 5.7% in the fourth quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 518 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $182,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 62.2% in the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.3% in the third quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,951 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $3,871,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the period. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. now owns 655 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $230,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the period. Finally, TCW Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.3% in the third quarter. TCW Group Inc. now owns 11,501 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,065,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.
Insider Buying and Selling
In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.47, 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 $4,677,625.26. This represents a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total value of $91,514.72. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 8,915 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,516,610.90. This trade represents a 2.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.
Accenture Price Performance
Shares of Accenture stock traded down $0.16 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $341.68. The company's stock had a trading volume of 4,459,862 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,708,053. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $365.74 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $358.46. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $398.35. The company has a market cap of $213.82 billion, a PE ratio of 28.66, a PEG 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 (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.27 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In
ACN has been the subject of several research analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Accenture from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Wolfe Research raised Accenture from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $425.00 price objective for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $388.96.
Check Out Our Latest Analysis on ACN
Accenture Company Profile
(
Free Report)
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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