Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Purchased by Handelsbanken Fonder AB

Handelsbanken Fonder AB boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 7.3% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 232,375 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 15,812 shares during the period. Handelsbanken Fonder AB’s holdings in Accenture were worth $81,747,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Swedbank AB lifted its holdings in Accenture by 16.6% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,551,679 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $901,967,000 after acquiring an additional 363,401 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 29.9% in the 3rd quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 20,589 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $7,278,000 after purchasing an additional 4,734 shares during the period. Segment Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Accenture by 0.4% during the third quarter. Segment Wealth Management LLC now owns 42,984 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $15,194,000 after buying an additional 157 shares during the period. Blossom Wealth Management increased its holdings in Accenture by 27.4% in the third quarter. Blossom Wealth Management now owns 894 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $316,000 after buying an additional 192 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Albert D Mason Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth about $232,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. BNP Paribas cut Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. 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, BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.22.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total value of $527,200.98. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,278,431.38. The trade was a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $390.72 on Thursday. 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 is $366.87 and its two-hundred day moving average is $355.57. The firm has a market cap of $244.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.78, a PEG ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.27 EPS. Research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current 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.