Bank of Marin Grows Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Bank of Marin increased its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 8.4% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 3,080 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 238 shares during the period. Bank of Marin’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,084,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. VSM Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth about $106,000. Xponance Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 8.6% during the fourth quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 97,765 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $34,393,000 after purchasing an additional 7,769 shares during the period. Intech Investment Management LLC raised its position in Accenture by 50.3% during the fourth quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 70,187 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $24,691,000 after acquiring an additional 23,484 shares in the last quarter. Generali Asset Management SPA SGR bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $23,043,000. Finally, Mirova US LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 26.4% in the fourth quarter. Mirova US LLC now owns 713,474 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $250,993,000 after acquiring an additional 149,119 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Down 0.5 %

Accenture stock opened at $324.21 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $202.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.20, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $361.86 and its 200-day simple moving average is $358.02. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (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 net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.27 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted 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 decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Wolfe Research raised Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 target price for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $385.65.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total transaction of $3,468,574.71. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,677,625.26. This represents a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction of $527,200.98. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,278,431.38. The trade was a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190 in the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.