Xponance Inc. Buys 7,769 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Xponance Inc. increased its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 8.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 97,765 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 7,769 shares during the period. Xponance Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $34,393,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Swedbank AB boosted its holdings in Accenture by 16.6% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,551,679 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $901,967,000 after purchasing an additional 363,401 shares during the period. TrinityPoint Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. TrinityPoint Wealth LLC now owns 4,140 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,463,000 after purchasing an additional 125 shares during the period. Strengthening Families & Communities LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 7.0% in the 3rd quarter. Strengthening Families & Communities LLC now owns 7,800 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,757,000 after purchasing an additional 512 shares during the period. Zevin Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter. Zevin Asset Management LLC now owns 33,532 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $11,853,000 after purchasing an additional 857 shares during the period. Finally, MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at about $30,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were 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 owns 8,915 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,516,610.90. This trade represents a 2.54 % 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 worth $8,316,190. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the subject of several analyst reports. Baird R W upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday. StockNews.com cut shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $388.04.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $326.25 on Tuesday. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $398.35. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $362.51 and a 200 day simple moving average of $358.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The company has a market capitalization of $204.16 billion, a PE ratio of 27.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

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

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.