Boston Research & Management Inc. Raises Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Boston Research & Management Inc. boosted its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 3.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 18,402 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 608 shares during the quarter. Accenture comprises about 1.4% of Boston Research & Management Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 25th largest position. Boston Research & Management Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $5,583,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in Accenture in the 1st quarter worth approximately $820,912,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main boosted its stake in Accenture by 100.0% in the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 1,751,531 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $614,615,000 after buying an additional 875,723 shares during the last quarter. Winslow Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $288,168,000. Generation Investment Management LLP purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth about $286,220,000. Finally, Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth approximately $263,421,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $336.22 on Friday. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $332.01 and its 200-day moving average is $322.44. The firm has a market capitalization of $210.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.82 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.15 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $16.47 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.55 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.19 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 11.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total transaction of $1,649,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total transaction of $1,649,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,964,751.98. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total transaction of $2,696,402.25. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 22,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,564,161.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635 over the last quarter. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $350.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 17th. Wedbush lowered their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $350.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Citigroup raised their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $382.00 to $300.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 26th. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $329.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $356.41.

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.