Clifford Group LLC Raises Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Clifford Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 9.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,286 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 189 shares during the quarter. Accenture comprises approximately 0.6% of Clifford Group LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 28th largest holding. Clifford Group LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $694,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 1st quarter valued at about $820,912,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main lifted its stake in Accenture by 100.0% in the fourth 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 valued at $614,615,000 after buying an additional 875,723 shares during the last quarter. Winslow Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $288,168,000. Generation Investment Management LLP purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth approximately $286,220,000. Finally, Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $263,421,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have issued reports on ACN shares. UBS Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 19th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on Accenture from $395.00 to $340.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on Accenture from $340.00 to $275.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Susquehanna lowered their target price on Accenture from $360.00 to $350.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 21st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Accenture from $330.00 to $376.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 6th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $355.59.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of Accenture 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 completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 22,849 shares in the company, valued at $7,564,161.45. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total value of $927,660.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 40,070 shares in the company, valued at $12,390,445.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Down 0.3 %

ACN stock opened at $335.24 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $210.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.70, a PEG ratio of 3.82 and a beta of 1.24. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $331.50 and a 200-day moving average of $322.77. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51.

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

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.