Los Angeles Capital Management LLC Purchases 222 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Los Angeles Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 7.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,347 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 222 shares during the quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,177,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Swedbank AB grew its stake in Accenture by 16.6% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,551,679 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $901,967,000 after purchasing an additional 363,401 shares in the last quarter. Principal Securities Inc. grew its stake in Accenture by 11.9% in the third quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 13,140 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,645,000 after purchasing an additional 1,396 shares in the last quarter. Interchange Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 3.9% in the third quarter. Interchange Capital Partners LLC now owns 882 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $313,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. Americana Partners LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 47.4% in the third quarter. Americana Partners LLC now owns 4,602 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,627,000 after purchasing an additional 1,479 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Campbell Wealth Management grew its stake in Accenture by 30.4% in the third quarter. Campbell Wealth Management now owns 862 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $305,000 after purchasing an additional 201 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total value 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the sale, the insider now owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190 over the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Accenture Trading Down 2.4 %

Accenture stock opened at $348.28 on Friday. 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 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $398.35. The company has a market capitalization of $217.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $367.28 and a 200 day moving average price of $357.83.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently issued reports on ACN shares. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $388.96.

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.