Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Purchased by Assenagon Asset Management S.A.

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2,666.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 715,219 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 689,366 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $251,607,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter valued at $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth about $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 607.1% during the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the third quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $51,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Price Performance

Accenture stock opened at $348.34 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $357.98 and its 200 day moving average price is $344.94. The company has a market cap of $217.99 billion, a PE ratio of 30.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.27 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 49.66%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently commented on ACN. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on Accenture from $355.00 to $385.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Susquehanna raised their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Finally, TD Cowen upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $385.04.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total value of $3,385,440.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at $7,645,075.84. This represents a 30.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 36,673 shares of company stock worth $13,507,099 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.