Jensen Investment Management Inc. Cuts Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Jensen Investment Management Inc. lowered its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.3% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 2,282,326 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 29,712 shares during the quarter. Accenture accounts for approximately 7.3% of Jensen Investment Management Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 3rd biggest position. Jensen Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $802,899,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. increased its stake in 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 period. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. increased its stake in Accenture by 62.2% in the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the period. Tradition Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,951 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,871,000 after buying an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. boosted its position in Accenture by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. now owns 655 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $230,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the period. Finally, TCW Group Inc. grew its stake in Accenture by 0.3% in the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total value of $242,750.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 8,674 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,073,892.12. The trade was a 7.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total transaction of $91,514.72. Following the transaction, 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $318.28 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $363.01 and its 200-day moving average price is $358.24. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $398.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $199.17 billion, a PE ratio of 26.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share 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 period in the prior year, the company earned $3.27 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently issued reports on ACN shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.52.

Accenture Company 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.