Terra Alpha Investments LLC Makes New Investment in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Terra Alpha Investments LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm purchased 13,752 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $4,838,000. Accenture accounts for about 4.9% of Terra Alpha Investments LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest holding.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 378.9% during the 3rd 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 purchasing an additional 4,345,039 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $666,495,000. Swedbank AB increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 47.5% in the 4th quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,763,690 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,324,029,000 after acquiring an additional 1,212,011 shares in the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 51,837.3% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 860,601 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $302,751,000 after acquiring an additional 858,944 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 27.9% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 3,790,069 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,353,909,000 after acquiring an additional 826,038 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the company’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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,677,625.26. This represents a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total transaction of $242,750.30. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 8,674 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,073,892.12. This trade represents a 7.32 % 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 valued at $8,316,190 over the last three months. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $429.00 to $396.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price target 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.52.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $318.28 on Monday. The company’s 50-day moving average is $363.01 and its 200 day moving average is $358.24. 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 $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 fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly 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 company had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.27 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share 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.