Jensen Investment Management Inc. Reduces Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Jensen Investment Management Inc. decreased its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,282,326 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 29,712 shares during the quarter. Accenture comprises about 7.3% of Jensen Investment Management Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 3rd biggest holding. Jensen Investment Management Inc. owned about 0.36% of Accenture worth $802,899,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. SlateStone Wealth LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. SlateStone Wealth LLC now owns 30,429 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $10,705,000 after purchasing an additional 361 shares in the last quarter. Nicholas Company Inc. increased its position in shares of Accenture by 5.0% during the fourth quarter. Nicholas Company Inc. now owns 194,088 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $68,278,000 after acquiring an additional 9,205 shares in the last quarter. First National Advisers LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. First National Advisers LLC now owns 9,386 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,302,000 after acquiring an additional 246 shares during the last quarter. Gallacher Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $239,000. Finally, Patten & Patten Inc. TN purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $225,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total value of $3,468,574.71. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction of $527,200.98. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at $3,278,431.38. This represents a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE:ACN opened at $318.28 on Monday. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $398.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The stock has a market capitalization of $199.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.70, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $363.01 and a 200 day moving average price of $358.24.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on Accenture from $429.00 to $396.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.52.

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.