Hilton Capital Management LLC Sells 4,273 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Hilton Capital Management LLC decreased its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 11.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 31,627 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 4,273 shares during the quarter. Hilton Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $11,126,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Carret Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 28.8% during the fourth quarter. Carret Asset Management LLC now owns 3,645 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,282,000 after purchasing an additional 814 shares during the period. Intact Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 691.1% during the fourth quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 31,250 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $10,993,000 after buying an additional 27,300 shares in the last quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in Accenture by 82.5% during the fourth quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 541,798 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $190,599,000 after purchasing an additional 244,967 shares during the last quarter. Renasant Bank boosted its position in Accenture by 7.7% during the fourth quarter. Renasant Bank now owns 1,207 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $425,000 after purchasing an additional 86 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Aviso Financial Inc. boosted its position in Accenture by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Aviso Financial Inc. now owns 16,059 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $5,649,000 after purchasing an additional 489 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the business’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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the business’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 completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 8,674 shares in the company, valued at $3,073,892.12. The trade was a 7.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on ACN shares. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Wolfe Research upgraded Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price target on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $388.96.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $316.48 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $198.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.55, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $398.35. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $363.72 and its 200 day moving average is $358.10. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.27 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current 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.