Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC Purchases 531 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.3% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 212,025 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 531 shares during the period. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $64,331,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Swedbank AB bought a new position in Accenture in the 1st quarter worth approximately $820,912,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main increased its position in Accenture by 100.0% during 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 worth $614,615,000 after acquiring an additional 875,723 shares during the period. Winslow Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $288,168,000. Generation Investment Management LLP acquired a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth $286,220,000. Finally, Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at about $263,421,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Up 0.3 %

Accenture 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 stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $332.01 and a 200 day simple moving average of $322.06. The stock has a market capitalization of $210.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.79, a P/E/G ratio of 3.82 and a beta of 1.24.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

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 completion of the sale, the insider now owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at $2,964,751.98. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’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 transaction of $1,649,100.00. Following the completion of 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 legal filing with the SEC, which is available at 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 transaction of $927,660.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 40,070 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,390,445.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 21,421 shares of company stock valued at $6,912,635. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Barclays lowered their price target on 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 objective on Accenture from $400.00 to $350.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Piper Sandler raised their target price on Accenture from $320.00 to $329.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday. Mizuho boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, UBS Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, July 19th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target 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.