E Fund Management Co. Ltd. Boosts Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

E Fund Management Co. Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 46.4% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 18,178 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,764 shares during the period. E Fund Management Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $6,395,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Swedbank AB grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 16.6% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,551,679 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $901,967,000 after buying an additional 363,401 shares during the last quarter. Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.8% in the third quarter. Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC now owns 1,903 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $673,000 after acquiring an additional 33 shares during the last quarter. Two Point Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.2% during the third quarter. Two Point Capital Management Inc. now owns 43,719 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $15,454,000 after acquiring an additional 518 shares in the last quarter. M&G PLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 34.1% in the 3rd quarter. M&G PLC now owns 292,808 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $103,361,000 after purchasing an additional 74,438 shares during the last quarter. Finally, D.B. Root & Company LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 25.3% in the 3rd quarter. D.B. Root & Company LLC now owns 941 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $333,000 after purchasing an additional 190 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total transaction of $91,514.72. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 8,915 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,516,610.90. This trade represents a 2.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $341.34 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The business’s fifty day moving average is $366.03 and its 200 day moving average is $358.18. The company has a market capitalization of $213.61 billion, a PE ratio of 28.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its 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 period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.27 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have issued reports on the stock. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Piper Sandler increased their target price on Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. UBS Group upped their price target on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $388.96.

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.