Victory Capital Management Inc. Cuts Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Victory Capital Management Inc. reduced its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 9.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 340,563 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 35,382 shares during the quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. owned 0.05% of Accenture worth $119,807,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Mainstream Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth about $73,000. Alley Investment Management Company LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Alley Investment Management Company LLC now owns 56,165 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $19,758,000 after buying an additional 1,199 shares during the last quarter. SWS Partners boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 5.2% in the 4th quarter. SWS Partners now owns 9,764 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,435,000 after buying an additional 481 shares during the last quarter. Patten Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. Patten Group Inc. now owns 3,772 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,327,000 after buying an additional 76 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Accenture by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,964,480 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,746,455,000 after purchasing an additional 140,726 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Up 0.7 %

ACN stock opened at $348.27 on Thursday. 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 company’s 50 day moving average is $366.41 and its 200 day moving average is $358.30. The stock has a market cap of $217.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $398.35.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares in the company, valued at $4,677,625.26. This represents a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the topic of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective 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. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus 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.