Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Acquired by Northwest Investment Counselors LLC

Northwest Investment Counselors LLC boosted its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.9% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 15,944 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 150 shares during the period. Accenture makes up about 1.3% of Northwest Investment Counselors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 14th biggest position. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,920,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 48,035,644 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $13,729,067,000 after purchasing an additional 634,462 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 2.7% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 26,453,884 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $7,560,765,000 after purchasing an additional 704,657 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 14.9% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 16,642,841 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,440,976,000 after purchasing an additional 2,163,582 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 21.7% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 11,535,663 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,297,009,000 after purchasing an additional 2,060,646 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 1.7% during the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,463,180 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,269,319,000 after purchasing an additional 191,640 shares in the last quarter. 70.42% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN stock traded down $4.06 during trading on Friday, hitting $312.53. The stock had a trading volume of 3,339,266 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,313,004. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $242.80 and a 1-year high of $330.43. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $316.31 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $296.14. The stock has a market cap of $207.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.22.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 22nd. The information technology services provider reported $3.19 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.96 by $0.23. Accenture had a net margin of 11.28% and a return on equity of 30.47%. The company had revenue of $16.56 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.49 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.79 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 11.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.19, for a total transaction of $1,976,187.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 167,854 shares in the company, valued at approximately $53,073,756.26. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, insider Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.19, for a total transaction of $1,976,187.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 167,854 shares in the company, valued at approximately $53,073,756.26. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Leonardo Framil sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $311.52, for a total value of $934,560.00. Following 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. Insiders sold a total of 25,774 shares of company stock valued at $8,138,451 in the last 90 days. 0.08% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on ACN. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 11th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 11th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $356.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 12th. Societe Generale boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $314.00 to $373.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 7th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lowered shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 3rd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $335.25.

Accenture Profile

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.