Proffitt & Goodson Inc. Raises Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Proffitt & Goodson Inc. boosted its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,409 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 35 shares during the period. Proffitt & Goodson Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $496,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new stake in Accenture during the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. lifted its stake in Accenture by 62.2% in the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter valued at $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC increased 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 acquiring an additional 34 shares during the period. Finally, Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Down 2.4 %

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $348.28 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $367.28 and a two-hundred day moving average of $357.56. The firm has a market capitalization of $217.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.22, a price-to-earnings-growth 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 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 issued its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.27 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Piper Sandler raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on shares of 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 upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $388.96.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at $3,278,431.38. This represents a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.