Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Decreases Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lowered its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 76.1% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 171,004 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 544,215 shares during the quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $53,360,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $2,351,683,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 30,256.8% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,421,519 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,067,651,000 after buying an additional 3,410,248 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in Accenture by 22.8% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,283,225,000 after buying an additional 2,260,740 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $666,495,000. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in Accenture by 16.8% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,325,526,000 after buying an additional 1,770,024 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Accenture stock traded down $6.76 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $311.37. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,102,635 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,958,064. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $275.01 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $305.50 and its 200 day simple moving average is $335.77. The firm has a market capitalization of $195.02 billion, a PE ratio of 26.12, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.77 EPS. The business's revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th were paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's payout ratio is 48.89%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total value of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 9,965 shares in the company, valued at $2,806,442.95. The trade was a 18.65% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total value of $812,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 15,882 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,161,650. This trade represents a 13.60% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have weighed in on ACN shares. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. UBS Group reissued a "buy" rating and set a $395.00 price target (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Baird R W raised shares of Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $372.00 to $340.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $382.15.

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.