Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Has $9.14 Million Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 4.7% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 25,853 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,160 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $9,139,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 607.1% during the 3rd quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Harvey Investment Co. LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth $276,000. Beese Fulmer Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth $218,000. BTS Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth $286,000. Finally, Franklin Parlapiano Turner & Welch LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Parlapiano Turner & Welch LLC now owns 24,001 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $8,484,000 after buying an additional 256 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $360.80 on Monday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $350.24 and its 200 day moving average is $322.93. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. The firm has a market cap of $226.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.04, a PEG ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.71 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.64%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 54.21%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group upped their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Piper Sandler raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $329.00 to $395.00 in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Susquehanna upped their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $371.18.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $369.97, for a total value of $1,757,357.50. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 22,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,500,430.72. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total value of $250,477.14. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,102,817. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $369.97, for a total value of $1,757,357.50. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 22,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,500,430.72. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 24,971 shares of company stock valued at $9,330,113. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company 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.