Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Purchased by Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S.

Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S. grew its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 650,730 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 23,311 shares during the period. Accenture accounts for approximately 4.6% of Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 6th biggest holding. Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S. owned approximately 0.10% of Accenture worth $228,920,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA lifted its position in Accenture by 6.5% in the 4th 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 acquiring an additional 3,883 shares in the last quarter. Davidson Trust Co. lifted its position in Accenture by 7.4% in the 4th quarter. Davidson Trust Co. now owns 2,307 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $812,000 after acquiring an additional 158 shares in the last quarter. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 78.6% in the 3rd 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 acquiring an additional 5,038 shares in the last quarter. MQS Management LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,040,000. Finally, Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC lifted its position in Accenture by 126.8% in the 4th 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 acquiring an additional 22,391 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have commented on ACN. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price target for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target 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. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $388.96.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $324.25 on Thursday. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The company has a market capitalization of $202.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.20, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a fifty day moving average of $364.36 and a 200-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 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. The business 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 firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.27 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction of $527,200.98. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at $3,278,431.38. The trade was a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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. This represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.