Sowell Financial Services LLC Invests $1.50 Million in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)

Sowell Financial Services LLC bought a new position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 4,807 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,500,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Accenture by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,394,657 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $21,246,236,000 after purchasing an additional 392,183 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,528,348 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,750,021,000 after buying an additional 136,665 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 16.8% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $4,325,526,000 after buying an additional 1,770,024 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in Accenture by 22.8% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $4,283,225,000 after acquiring an additional 2,260,740 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors boosted its stake in Accenture by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 8,513,140 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $2,994,922,000 after purchasing an additional 181,449 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 9,965 shares in the company, valued at $2,806,442.95. This represents a 18.65% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366 over the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN stock traded down $5.92 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $306.11. 4,590,591 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,950,928. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a current ratio of 1.48. The firm has a market capitalization of $191.72 billion, a PE ratio of 25.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.15 and a beta of 1.33. Accenture PLC has a 12 month low of $275.01 and a 12 month high of $398.35. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $306.52 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $334.70.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.49% and a net margin of 11.43%. Accenture's revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.77 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on Accenture from $372.00 to $340.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, June 12th. Robert W. Baird upgraded Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 price objective for the company in a report on Monday, March 17th. UBS Group restated a "buy" rating and set a $395.00 target price (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 24th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $380.00.

Accenture Company 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.