Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. Buys 140,726 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 4,964,480 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 140,726 shares during the quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,746,455,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter worth approximately $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. boosted 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 worth $28,000 after buying an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter worth approximately $30,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Finally, POM Investment Strategies LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 64.2% during the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on ACN shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. StockNews.com raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $388.96.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The stock was 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. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of Accenture 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. The trade was a 42.58 % 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 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Down 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $344.57 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $215.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.91, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. 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 stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $366.99 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $358.24. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced 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. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.27 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

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.