Financial Security Advisor Inc. Raises Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Financial Security Advisor Inc. lifted its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 27.8% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 1,956 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 425 shares during the period. Financial Security Advisor Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $688,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. BSW Wealth Partners lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. BSW Wealth Partners now owns 4,077 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,441,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the period. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its stake 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 acquiring an additional 28 shares during the period. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. grew its holdings in Accenture by 62.2% during the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Accenture by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,951 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,871,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the period. Finally, New England Professional Planning Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. New England Professional Planning Group Inc. now owns 655 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $230,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the company’s 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 in the company, valued at $4,677,625.26. This represents a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of Accenture 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 transaction, the insider now owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. This represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the topic of several research reports. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. UBS Group boosted their price target on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Wolfe Research upgraded Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $388.96.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $356.96 on Friday. 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 stock has a 50-day moving average of $367.64 and a two-hundred day moving average of $357.33. The stock has a market cap of $223.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.95, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 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 firm had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.27 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, 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.