Banco Santander S.A. Purchases 3,907 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Banco Santander S.A. lifted its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 114.2% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,327 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 3,907 shares during the period. Banco Santander S.A.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,540,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $2,061,490,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main lifted its position 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 purchasing an additional 875,723 shares during the last quarter. Winslow Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $288,168,000. Generation Investment Management LLP bought a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $286,220,000. Finally, Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado purchased a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $263,421,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN traded up $1.09 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $329.19. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 5,376,237 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,941,180. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $300.80 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $332.09. The company has a market cap of $206.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.67 and a beta of 1.23.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data 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). Accenture had a net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. The company had revenue of $16.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.55 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.19 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 11th will be issued a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 47.25%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $350.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 17th. Bank of America dropped their price target on Accenture from $419.00 to $365.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on Accenture in a research report on Monday, June 24th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $335.00 price objective for the company. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, April 27th. Finally, Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and set a $395.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, May 24th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $351.82.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total transaction of $472,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,570 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,149,550. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total value of $472,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 38,570 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,149,550. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,208,606.78. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 13,276 shares of company stock valued at $4,103,233. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.