Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc. Boosts Stake in Accenture PLC $ACN

Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc. grew its stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 3.8% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 15,907 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 580 shares during the period. Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,754,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in ACN. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 5.7% during 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 last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 63.9% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,953,621 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,793,889,000 after purchasing an additional 3,490,569 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 3.5% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 6,766,369 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,111,378,000 after purchasing an additional 228,939 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.1% during 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 worth $1,923,225,000 after purchasing an additional 126,548 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 3.3% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,129,053 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,600,470,000 after purchasing an additional 164,573 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN opened at $239.29 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $149.87 billion, a PE ratio of 19.05, a PEG ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 1.29. Accenture PLC has a twelve month low of $234.10 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $255.29 and its 200 day moving average price is $287.60. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have weighed in on ACN. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $315.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 23rd. Rothschild Redb cut shares of Accenture from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $315.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 16th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Accenture to a “moderate sell” rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $321.83.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total transaction of $635,794.95. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 8,109 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,290,387.05. The trade was a 21.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total transaction of $57,315.02. Following the transaction, the insider owned 5,249 shares in the company, valued at $1,482,002.66. The trade was a 3.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 2,954 shares of company stock worth $834,280. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.