William Blair Investment Management LLC Sells 199,314 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

William Blair Investment Management LLC cut its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 17.5% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 939,423 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 199,314 shares during the period. Accenture comprises approximately 0.8% of William Blair Investment Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 19th largest holding. William Blair Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $330,480,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 62.2% during the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth $30,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. Finally, POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 64.2% during the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of ACN stock opened at $318.28 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $199.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.70, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $363.01 and its 200-day simple moving average is $358.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 the consensus estimate 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% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have commented on ACN. 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 upped 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. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $429.00 to $396.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.52.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total value of $3,468,574.71. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,677,625.26. This represents a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction of $527,200.98. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,278,431.38. This trade represents a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.