Nwam LLC Grows Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Nwam LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 9.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 3,492 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 297 shares during the period. Nwam LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,228,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth about $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. boosted its stake in Accenture by 62.2% in the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Accenture during the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC raised its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $34,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $356.96 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $367.64 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $357.33. 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 capitalization of $223.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.95, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share 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 company had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.27 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other 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 value of $134,437.50. Following the transaction, the insider now 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total transaction of $3,468,574.71. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,677,625.26. This trade represents a 42.58 % 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. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have weighed in on ACN. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. 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 note on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price target for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus 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.