Flputnam Investment Management Co. Raises Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Flputnam Investment Management Co. raised its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 9.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 120,293 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 10,671 shares during the quarter. Accenture comprises 0.8% of Flputnam Investment Management Co.’s portfolio, making the stock its 26th largest holding. Flputnam Investment Management Co.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $42,318,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in Accenture during the third quarter worth about $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 62.2% during the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter worth about $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 64.2% in the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $34,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190 over the last ninety days. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on ACN. StockNews.com raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Piper Sandler increased their target price on Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $370.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $388.96.

Accenture Stock Down 2.4 %

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $348.28 on Friday. 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 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $398.35. The company has a market cap of $217.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.22, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $367.28 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. Accenture’s revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.27 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate 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.