GS Investments Inc. Cuts Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

GS Investments Inc. lowered its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 13,269 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 335 shares during the quarter. Accenture accounts for about 2.1% of GS Investments Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 17th biggest holding. GS Investments Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,668,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new stake in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 62.2% in the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth approximately $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 64.2% during the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $34,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Baird R W raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday. BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $425.00 to $370.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. 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 research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Mizuho decreased their price target on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $384.45.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of Accenture 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,278,431.38. This represents a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190 in the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $324.52 on Thursday. 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 plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The company has a market cap of $203.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.22, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $361.19 and its 200 day moving average price is $357.78.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced 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. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.27 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.