Cozad Asset Management Inc. Boosts Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Cozad Asset Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 5.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 670 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 33 shares during the period. Cozad Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $236,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 378.9% during 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 valued at $1,941,219,000 after purchasing an additional 4,345,039 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth $666,495,000. Swedbank AB increased its stake in shares of 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 during the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 51,837.3% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 860,601 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $302,751,000 after buying an additional 858,944 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Amundi increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 27.9% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 3,790,069 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,353,909,000 after buying an additional 826,038 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN stock opened at $324.21 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $202.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.20, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $361.86 and a 200 day simple moving average of $358.02. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion during 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 company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.27 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently issued reports on ACN shares. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price target for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $425.00 to $370.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, UBS Group boosted 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. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $385.65.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.78, for a total value of $1,723,205.00. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 20,526 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,446,422.28. This represents a 18.79 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Accenture 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.