Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) is Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC’s 8th Largest Position

Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 172,001 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 109 shares during the quarter. Accenture comprises about 2.2% of Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest holding. Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $60,508,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth $30,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 21.6% in the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 9,125 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,217,000 after acquiring an additional 1,623 shares during the period. Purkiss Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth $285,000. Duncker Streett & Co. Inc. lifted its position in Accenture by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Duncker Streett & Co. Inc. now owns 12,239 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,306,000 after purchasing an additional 82 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Onefund LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Onefund LLC now owns 1,696 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $597,000 after purchasing an additional 52 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Down 2.4 %

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $348.28 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $367.28 and its two-hundred day moving average is $357.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $398.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $217.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.22, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.27 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the topic of several analyst reports. StockNews.com upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $388.96.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total transaction of $91,514.72. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 8,915 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,516,610.90. This represents a 2.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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. The trade was a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by 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.