Grandfield & Dodd LLC Lowers Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Grandfield & Dodd LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 9.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,533 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 159 shares during the period. Grandfield & Dodd LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $539,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Swedbank AB increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 16.6% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,551,679 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $901,967,000 after purchasing an additional 363,401 shares in the last quarter. Princeton Global Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 2.4% in the third quarter. Princeton Global Asset Management LLC now owns 18,168 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $6,422,000 after buying an additional 424 shares in the last quarter. Optas LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 19.3% during the 3rd quarter. Optas LLC now owns 1,365 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $482,000 after acquiring an additional 221 shares in the last quarter. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $204,000. Finally, Pure Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Pure Financial Advisors LLC now owns 1,931 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $683,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $348.28 on Monday. 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. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $367.28 and its 200 day moving average price is $358.10. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $398.35.

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. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The company’s revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.27 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the business’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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. The trade was a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total transaction of $91,514.72. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 8,915 shares in the company, valued at $3,516,610.90. This represents a 2.54 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have weighed in on ACN. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Wolfe Research upgraded Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their target price on Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $388.96.

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.