Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund Increases Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund increased its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 21.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 22,513 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 3,967 shares during the quarter. Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund’s holdings in Accenture were worth $7,920,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Creative Capital Management Investments LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 410.0% during the 4th quarter. Creative Capital Management Investments LLC now owns 102 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 82 shares during the period. Buckingham Capital Management Inc. grew its position in Accenture by 9.3% during the fourth quarter. Buckingham Capital Management Inc. now owns 25,277 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $8,892,000 after buying an additional 2,151 shares during the period. Davidson Trust Co. increased its holdings in Accenture by 7.4% in the fourth quarter. Davidson Trust Co. now owns 2,307 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $812,000 after buying an additional 158 shares in the last quarter. BKM Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. BKM Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,056 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,834,000 after acquiring an additional 220 shares during the period. Finally, Kestra Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 11.1% in the 4th quarter. Kestra Investment Management LLC now owns 8,066 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,837,000 after purchasing an additional 809 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Wolfe Research raised shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Robert W. Baird restated a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.22.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $387.99 on Tuesday. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $398.35. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $365.29 and a two-hundred day moving average of $354.45. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The stock has a market capitalization of $242.80 billion, a PE ratio of 32.55, a P/E/G ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 1.24.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were 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 $4,677,625.26. This trade represents a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.