Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Holdings Decreased by Carlson Capital Management

Carlson Capital Management reduced its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.5% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 31,020 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 161 shares during the quarter. Accenture accounts for approximately 0.5% of Carlson Capital Management’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 17th largest position. Carlson Capital Management’s holdings in Accenture were worth $10,913,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Swedbank AB boosted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 363,401 shares during the period. TrinityPoint Wealth LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 3.1% in the third quarter. TrinityPoint Wealth LLC now owns 4,140 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,463,000 after buying an additional 125 shares during the last quarter. Strengthening Families & Communities LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 7.0% in the third quarter. Strengthening Families & Communities LLC now owns 7,800 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,757,000 after purchasing an additional 512 shares in the last quarter. Zevin Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. Zevin Asset Management LLC now owns 33,532 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $11,853,000 after acquiring an additional 857 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in Accenture during the third quarter worth approximately $30,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Stock Up 2.3 %

NYSE:ACN opened at $326.25 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $204.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $362.51 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $358.14. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

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

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. This represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total value of $527,200.98. Following 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190 in the last ninety days. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on ACN shares. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Robert W. Baird upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday. Baird R W upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday. BMO Capital Markets raised 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. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $388.04.

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.