Vista Investment Partners II LLC Acquires Shares of 9,623 Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Vista Investment Partners II LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 9,623 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $3,385,000. Accenture makes up about 2.0% of Vista Investment Partners II LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 12th biggest position.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 62.2% in 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 last quarter. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. Finally, POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 64.2% in 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 last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction of $527,200.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,278,431.38. The trade was a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 approximately $4,677,625.26. This represents a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. UBS Group lifted their target price on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Wolfe Research raised 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. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, StockNews.com raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $388.96.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN stock opened at $341.68 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $213.82 billion, a PE ratio of 28.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company’s 50-day moving average is $365.74 and its 200-day moving average is $358.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year 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 (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.27 EPS. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Accenture

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.