Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S. Raises Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S. lifted its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 650,730 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 23,311 shares during the period. Accenture comprises 4.6% of Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S.’s portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest holding. Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $228,920,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA lifted its position in Accenture by 6.5% during the fourth quarter. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA now owns 63,429 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $22,314,000 after purchasing an additional 3,883 shares during the period. Davidson Trust Co. lifted its position in Accenture by 7.4% during the fourth quarter. Davidson Trust Co. now owns 2,307 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $812,000 after purchasing an additional 158 shares during the period. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 78.6% during the third quarter. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,448 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,047,000 after purchasing an additional 5,038 shares during the period. MQS Management LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the third quarter valued at approximately $1,040,000. Finally, Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC lifted its position in Accenture by 126.8% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC now owns 40,051 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $14,090,000 after purchasing an additional 22,391 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Accenture stock opened at $324.25 on Thursday. 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 stock has a market cap of $202.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $364.36 and a two-hundred day moving average of $358.39.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $3.27 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,497 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.48, for a total transaction of $885,136.56. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 28,866 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,232,419.68. This represents a 7.96 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190 in the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have weighed in on the stock. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. StockNews.com cut shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Robert W. Baird reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $388.96.

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.