Smartleaf Asset Management LLC Buys 1,623 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Smartleaf Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 21.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 9,125 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,623 shares during the period. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $3,217,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. State Street Corp raised its stake in Accenture by 1.8% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,400,836 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $9,685,648,000 after buying an additional 471,792 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 378.9% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,491,736 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,941,219,000 after buying an additional 4,345,039 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Accenture by 1.2% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,823,754 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,705,100,000 after buying an additional 56,937 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB raised its stake in Accenture by 47.5% in the fourth quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,763,690 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,324,029,000 after buying an additional 1,212,011 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp raised its stake in Accenture by 1.5% in the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 1,892,409 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $668,974,000 after buying an additional 28,491 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Trading Down 2.4 %

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $348.28 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $217.95 billion, a PE ratio of 29.22, a P/E/G 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’s fifty day simple moving average is $367.28 and its 200-day simple moving average is $357.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47.

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, 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 company had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.27 EPS. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total value of $91,514.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 8,915 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,516,610.90. The trade was a 2.54 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the business’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 directly owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. This trade represents a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price 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. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average 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.