Old North State Trust LLC Buys 46,305 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Old North State Trust LLC raised its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2,706.3% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 48,016 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 46,305 shares during the period. Old North State Trust LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $515,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of ACN. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $1,850,765,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 101,214.0% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,040,402 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,078,141,000 after purchasing an additional 4,036,414 shares in the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp bought a new position in Accenture in the 1st quarter worth approximately $638,488,000. Morgan Stanley increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 14.9% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 16,642,841 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,440,976,000 after buying an additional 2,163,582 shares during the period. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in Accenture by 21.7% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 11,535,663 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,297,009,000 after acquiring an additional 2,060,646 shares during the last quarter. 70.42% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,344 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $300.00, for a total transaction of $403,200.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 10,506 shares in the company, valued at $3,151,800. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,344 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $300.00, for a total value of $403,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 10,506 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,151,800. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Leonardo Framil sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $311.52, for a total transaction of $934,560.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 16,898 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,264,064.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 25,774 shares of company stock worth $8,138,451. 0.08% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the subject of several analyst reports. TD Cowen lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $300.00 to $312.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Accenture from $314.00 to $341.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 22nd. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Accenture from $340.00 to $356.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Citigroup boosted their target price on Accenture from $306.00 to $358.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 14th. Finally, Piper Jaffray Companies cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $316.00 to $314.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, June 23rd. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $335.25.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN traded down $1.76 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $313.13. The stock had a trading volume of 340,011 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,295,774. The firm has a market cap of $208.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $315.93 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $295.33. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $242.80 and a twelve month high of $330.43.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, June 22nd. The information technology services provider reported $3.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.96 by $0.23. The business had revenue of $16.56 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.49 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 30.47% and a net margin of 11.28%. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.79 EPS. Analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 11.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Accenture

Accenture plc, a professional services company, provides strategy and consulting, interactive, 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 comprises 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 comprises turnkey analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions; metaverse; and sustainability services.