Advisors Asset Management Inc. Acquires 2,240 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Advisors Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 5.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 45,540 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,240 shares during the period. Advisors Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $16,021,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new position in Accenture during the third quarter valued at $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. grew its holdings in Accenture by 62.2% during 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 period. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Accenture during the third quarter valued at $30,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. Finally, POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its holdings 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 valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN stock opened at $326.25 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $362.51 and a 200-day moving average price of $358.14. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $398.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $204.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.37, a PEG 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 released its earnings results 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 net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.27 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast 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 business’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of 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 legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 directly 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on ACN shares. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $388.04.

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.