Securian Asset Management Inc. Lowers Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Securian Asset Management Inc. reduced its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 33,583 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 1,061 shares during the period. Securian Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $11,814,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 62.2% in the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. Finally, POM Investment Strategies LLC boosted 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 valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” 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 lifted their target price for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $388.96.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total value of $91,514.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 8,915 shares in the company, 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 SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total transaction of $3,468,574.71. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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 sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $327.79 on Wednesday. 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 plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $364.92 and a 200 day simple moving average of $358.63. The company has a market cap of $205.13 billion, a PE ratio of 27.50, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The firm 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%. Accenture’s revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.27 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate 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.