Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. Buys 273 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 11.9% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 2,562 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 273 shares during the quarter. Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $901,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 378.9% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,491,736 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,941,219,000 after buying an additional 4,345,039 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB increased its stake in Accenture by 47.5% in the 4th quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,763,690 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,324,029,000 after buying an additional 1,212,011 shares in the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 51,837.3% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 860,601 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $302,751,000 after buying an additional 858,944 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in Accenture by 2,666.5% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 715,219 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $251,607,000 after buying an additional 689,366 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Holocene Advisors LP purchased a new stake in Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth $204,895,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $348.27 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $217.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.22, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company’s 50 day moving average is $366.41 and its 200 day moving average is $358.30. 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.

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

Insider Activity at Accenture

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. UBS Group raised their price objective on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus decreased 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, February 26th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently 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.