Quest Investment Management LLC Trims Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Quest Investment Management LLC cut its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 4.2% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,853 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 342 shares during the quarter. Quest Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,383,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 1.1% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 59,718,732 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $20,699,110,000 after acquiring an additional 635,349 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its position in Accenture by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 10,912,962 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,311,102,000 after purchasing an additional 131,544 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in Accenture by 2.0% in the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,652,537 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,999,056,000 after purchasing an additional 173,107 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 4.1% in the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 3,797,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,316,086,000 after buying an additional 148,738 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 6.2% during the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 3,044,810 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,055,362,000 after buying an additional 178,003 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have commented on the company. Morgan Stanley downgraded Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $382.00 to $300.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 26th. TD Cowen increased their price target on Accenture from $293.00 to $321.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Bank of America cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $419.00 to $365.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th. Mizuho lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $330.00 to $376.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 6th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $356.41.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN stock opened at $336.22 on Friday. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $210.71 billion, a PE ratio of 30.79, a P/E/G ratio of 3.82 and a beta of 1.24. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $332.01 and its 200-day simple moving average is $322.06.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total value of $2,696,402.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 22,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,564,161.45. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total value 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total transaction of $2,696,402.25. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 22,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,564,161.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635. Corporate insiders own 0.07% 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.