Alley Investment Management Company LLC Boosts Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Alley Investment Management Company LLC boosted its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.2% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 56,165 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,199 shares during the period. Accenture makes up approximately 2.5% of Alley Investment Management Company LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 12th largest position. Alley Investment Management Company LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $19,758,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. lifted its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth $30,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth $30,000. Finally, POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 64.2% during the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total transaction of $242,750.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 8,674 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,073,892.12. The trade was a 7.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total value of $91,514.72. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 8,915 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,516,610.90. This represents a 2.54 % 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 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. UBS Group upped their price objective on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. StockNews.com upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Robert W. Baird restated a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $388.96.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $344.57 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $398.35. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $366.99 and its 200-day simple moving average is $358.24. The stock has a market capitalization of $215.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.91, a PEG 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 (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $3.27 earnings per share. Accenture’s revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.