Asset Management One Co. Ltd. Acquires 3,351 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Asset Management One Co. Ltd. grew its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 1.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 252,437 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,351 shares during the period. Asset Management One Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $89,913,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 378.9% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,491,736 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,941,219,000 after buying an additional 4,345,039 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 47.5% during the 4th quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,763,690 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,324,029,000 after acquiring an additional 1,212,011 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its holdings in Accenture by 2,666.5% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 715,219 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $251,607,000 after purchasing an additional 689,366 shares in the last quarter. Holocene Advisors LP bought a new position in Accenture in the third quarter valued at about $204,895,000. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 37,788.5% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 510,358 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $180,401,000 after purchasing an additional 509,011 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price target for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their price target on Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.22.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN stock opened at $389.71 on Friday. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $398.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $243.88 billion, a PE ratio of 32.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 1.24. The company’s 50-day moving average is $364.15 and its 200-day moving average is $353.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.27 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.52%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 49.66%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,497 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.48, for a total transaction of $885,136.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 28,866 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,232,419.68. This represents a 7.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total value of $527,200.98. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,278,431.38. This trade represents a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190 over the last three months. 0.02% of the stock is currently 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.