Choate Investment Advisors Acquires 1,017 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Choate Investment Advisors lifted its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 8.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 13,444 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,017 shares during the period. Choate Investment Advisors’ holdings in Accenture were worth $4,729,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Diversified Enterprises LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 11.2% in the fourth quarter. Diversified Enterprises LLC now owns 2,050 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $721,000 after acquiring an additional 206 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 685,909 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $241,296,000 after buying an additional 11,111 shares in the last quarter. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC now owns 13,575 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,776,000 after buying an additional 83 shares in the last quarter. Clearstead Trust LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 1,014.8% in the fourth quarter. Clearstead Trust LLC now owns 3,021 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,063,000 after buying an additional 2,750 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Copperwynd Financial LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 5.9% in the fourth quarter. Copperwynd Financial LLC now owns 3,031 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,066,000 after buying an additional 170 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on ACN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $429.00 to $396.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.52.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred 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 directly owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of Accenture 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,278,431.38. The trade was a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190 over the last ninety days. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $318.28 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $199.17 billion, a PE ratio of 26.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $363.01 and its 200-day simple moving average is $358.10. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion for 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 quarterly revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.27 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

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.