Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD. Reduces Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD. lowered its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 11.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,179 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 145 shares during the quarter. Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $415,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $51,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 21.6% during the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 9,125 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,217,000 after buying an additional 1,623 shares during the last quarter. Purkiss Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $285,000. Finally, Duncker Streett & Co. Inc. grew its stake in Accenture by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Duncker Streett & Co. Inc. now owns 12,239 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,306,000 after buying an additional 82 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total transaction 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 approximately $4,677,625.26. The trade was a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total value of $242,750.30. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 8,674 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,073,892.12. This trade represents a 7.32 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $348.28 on Friday. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The stock has a market cap of $217.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The business has a fifty day moving average of $367.28 and a 200-day moving average of $357.83. 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 (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.27 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group raised their price target on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Piper Sandler raised their price target on Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, StockNews.com raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $388.96.

Accenture Company 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.