Athena Investment Management Cuts Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Athena Investment Management decreased its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 12.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 709 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 100 shares during the quarter. Athena Investment Management’s holdings in Accenture were worth $249,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. State Street Corp raised its position in Accenture by 1.8% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,400,836 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $9,685,648,000 after acquiring an additional 471,792 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 378.9% during 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 valued at $1,941,219,000 after acquiring an additional 4,345,039 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Accenture by 1.2% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,823,754 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,705,100,000 after acquiring an additional 56,937 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 47.5% in the 4th quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,763,690 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,324,029,000 after buying an additional 1,212,011 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 1,892,409 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $668,974,000 after buying an additional 28,491 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Down 2.4 %

NYSE:ACN opened at $348.28 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $217.95 billion, a PE ratio of 29.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 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 plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $398.35. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $367.28 and a 200-day simple moving average of $357.56.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released 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. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.27 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total value of $527,200.98. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at $3,278,431.38. The trade was a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total value of $242,750.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 8,674 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,073,892.12. This trade represents a 7.32 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on shares of 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 boosted their target price 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. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $388.96.

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.