William Blair Investment Management LLC Has $330.48 Million Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

William Blair Investment Management LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 17.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 939,423 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 199,314 shares during the period. Accenture makes up approximately 0.8% of William Blair Investment Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 19th largest position. William Blair Investment Management LLC owned 0.15% of Accenture worth $330,480,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. increased its position in Accenture by 5.7% in the fourth quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $182,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the period. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. boosted its stake 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 buying an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 0.3% during the third quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,951 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,871,000 after buying an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. boosted its stake in Accenture by 4.6% during the fourth quarter. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. now owns 655 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $230,000 after buying an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Finally, TCW Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.3% during the third quarter. TCW Group Inc. now owns 11,501 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,065,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the firm’s 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 completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 8,915 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,516,610.90. This trade represents a 2.54 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Up 0.4 %

NYSE ACN opened at $318.28 on Monday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $363.01 and a 200-day moving average of $358.24. The stock has a market capitalization of $199.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week 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 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.27 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the subject of several research analyst reports. StockNews.com downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Robert W. Baird reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.52.

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.