Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) is Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC’s 8th Largest Position

Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.1% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 172,001 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 109 shares during the period. Accenture accounts for 2.2% of Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 8th biggest position. Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $60,508,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $30,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 21.6% during the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 9,125 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,217,000 after buying an additional 1,623 shares during the period. Purkiss Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $285,000. Duncker Streett & Co. Inc. lifted its holdings in Accenture by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Duncker Streett & Co. Inc. now owns 12,239 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,306,000 after buying an additional 82 shares during the period. Finally, Onefund LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Onefund LLC now owns 1,696 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $597,000 after buying an additional 52 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total value of $527,200.98. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at $3,278,431.38. This trade represents a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $348.28 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $367.28 and its two-hundred day moving average is $357.83. The company has a market capitalization of $217.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.22, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced 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 company had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.27 EPS. Research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently commented on ACN shares. Wolfe Research upgraded Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price objective for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. StockNews.com upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average 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.