Natural Investments LLC Invests $2.34 Million in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Natural Investments LLC acquired a new position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 6,662 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,343,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in ACN. Swedbank AB boosted its holdings in Accenture by 16.6% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,551,679 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $901,967,000 after acquiring an additional 363,401 shares during the period. XML Financial LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 3.2% in the third quarter. XML Financial LLC now owns 3,395 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,200,000 after purchasing an additional 106 shares during the period. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 49.6% during the 3rd quarter. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC now owns 1,101 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $389,000 after buying an additional 365 shares during the period. Kennebec Savings Bank acquired a new position in Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth $75,000. Finally, Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the third quarter valued at about $104,924,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Wolfe Research raised Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price objective for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $388.96.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $335.34 on Tuesday. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 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 company has a market capitalization of $209.85 billion, a PE ratio of 28.13, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $365.40 and its 200 day moving average price is $358.67.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data 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. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.27 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the sale, the insider now owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,278,431.38. This trade represents 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 ninety days. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.