Eldred Rock Partners LLC Sells 1,641 Shares of Accenture PLC $ACN

Key Points

• Eldred Rock Partners LLC reduced its stake in Accenture PLC ($ACN) by 5.0%, now holding 31,396 shares valued at approximately $9.38 million, making it the 20th largest position in their portfolio.
• Accenture's stock opened at $236.58, and the company reported a revenue of $17.73 billion for the last quarter, exceeding analyst expectations.
• Several analysts have recently cut their price targets for Accenture, with the consensus rating now at "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $340.13.

Eldred Rock Partners LLC lessened its holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 5.0% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 31,396 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 1,641 shares during the quarter. Accenture makes up about 2.9% of Eldred Rock Partners LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 20th largest holding. Eldred Rock Partners LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $9,384,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Accenture by 5.7% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 63,814,234 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $19,912,594,000 after purchasing an additional 3,419,577 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in Accenture by 63.9% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,953,621 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $2,793,889,000 after buying an additional 3,490,569 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in Accenture by 3.5% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 6,766,369 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $2,111,378,000 after buying an additional 228,939 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 2.1% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 6,163,393 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,923,225,000 after buying an additional 126,548 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 9.9% during the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 6,036,845 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $2,123,702,000 after purchasing an additional 545,109 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Accenture Stock Up 0.5%

Shares of NYSE:ACN traded up $1.10 during trading on Friday, hitting $240.65. 11,449,719 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,980,534. Accenture PLC has a 52 week low of $234.18 and a 52 week high of $398.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company has a market cap of $150.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $257.73 and a 200-day moving average price of $289.38.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.55% and a net margin of 11.61%.The business had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.13 EPS. Accenture's revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have commented on ACN shares. Argus set a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $334.00 to $302.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 20th. Benchmark reissued a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, June 20th. Barclays lowered their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. Finally, Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on Accenture from $372.00 to $350.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, September 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $335.39.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total transaction of $635,794.95. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 8,109 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,290,387.05. The trade was a 21.73% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $57,315.02. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 5,249 shares in the company, valued at $1,482,002.66. This trade represents a 3.72% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 2,954 shares of company stock valued at $834,280 in the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Accenture Profile

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.