Generali Asset Management SPA SGR Invests $23.04 Million in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Generali Asset Management SPA SGR bought a new position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 65,502 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $23,043,000. Accenture makes up approximately 0.6% of Generali Asset Management SPA SGR’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 25th largest holding.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter valued at $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 62.2% during the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the third quarter worth $30,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $30,000. Finally, POM Investment Strategies LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 64.2% during the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the subject of several recent research reports. Baird R W upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $388.04.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $326.25 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $362.51 and a 200-day simple moving average of $358.14. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $398.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $204.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47.

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

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total transaction of $91,514.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 8,915 shares in the company, valued at $3,516,610.90. This trade represents a 2.54 % 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. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.