First Business Financial Services Inc. Has $1.47 Million Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

First Business Financial Services Inc. decreased its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,167 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 62 shares during the period. First Business Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,466,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 12.6% during the 4th quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 10,367 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,647,000 after purchasing an additional 1,163 shares in the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System boosted its holdings in Accenture by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 181,260 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $63,765,000 after acquiring an additional 1,661 shares in the last quarter. Aigen Investment Management LP bought a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,329,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 47.6% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,446 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $861,000 after acquiring an additional 789 shares in the last quarter. Finally, M&T Bank Corp boosted its holdings in Accenture by 4.9% in the fourth quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 240,673 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $84,667,000 after acquiring an additional 11,293 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $348.27 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $217.94 billion, a PE ratio of 29.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $366.41 and a 200-day moving average of $358.30.

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

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was 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 owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,677,625.26. The trade was a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on ACN shares. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. UBS Group increased their price target on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $388.96.

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.