Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Purchased by Rakuten Securities Inc.

Rakuten Securities Inc. increased its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 220.0% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 176 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 121 shares during the quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $62,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter worth $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 62.2% during the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture in the third quarter valued at $30,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. Finally, POM Investment Strategies LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 64.2% in the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN opened at $324.25 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $364.36 and a 200-day moving average of $358.39. The company has a market capitalization of $202.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.20, a PEG 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. 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 for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The company’s revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.27 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Robert W. Baird restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. 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 research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $388.96.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated 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 approximately $4,677,625.26. The trade was a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.