Handelsbanken Fonder AB Buys 15,812 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Handelsbanken Fonder AB grew its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 7.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 232,375 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 15,812 shares during the period. Handelsbanken Fonder AB’s holdings in Accenture were worth $81,747,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Sunpointe LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 8.0% during the fourth quarter. Sunpointe LLC now owns 876 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $308,000 after purchasing an additional 65 shares in the last quarter. Cumberland Partners Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 62.7% during the 4th quarter. Cumberland Partners Ltd now owns 13,125 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,617,000 after buying an additional 5,060 shares in the last quarter. Ieq Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 4.9% in the 4th quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 46,737 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $16,442,000 after buying an additional 2,169 shares during the period. Freedom Day Solutions LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 5.9% in the 4th quarter. Freedom Day Solutions LLC now owns 10,140 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,567,000 after buying an additional 568 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Private Advisor Group LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 14.2% during the fourth quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 38,049 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $13,385,000 after acquiring an additional 4,739 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total value of $3,468,574.71. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total transaction of $91,514.72. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 8,915 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,516,610.90. The trade was a 2.54 % 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 three months. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently issued reports on the company. BNP Paribas cut Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. StockNews.com raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted 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 research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.22.

Accenture Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $390.72 on Thursday. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The stock has a market cap of $244.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.78, a PEG ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 1.24. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $366.87 and its two-hundred day moving average is $355.57.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued 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. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion for 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 was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.27 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect 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.