Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Acquired by BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A.

BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 30.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 390,344 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after buying an additional 90,430 shares during the period. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. owned approximately 0.06% of Accenture worth $137,979,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the first quarter valued at about $820,912,000. Clearbridge Investments LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 44.7% during the 2nd quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,709,989 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $822,238,000 after acquiring an additional 837,677 shares during the period. 1832 Asset Management L.P. boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 251.3% in the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 995,896 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $302,165,000 after acquiring an additional 712,400 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 196.5% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 988,094 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $342,483,000 after purchasing an additional 654,807 shares during the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in 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 during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on ACN shares. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Accenture from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $375.00 target price for the company. in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Mizuho raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $368.23.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total transaction of $2,945,801.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 12,188 shares in the company, valued at $4,412,909.16. This trade represents a 40.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company's stock.

Accenture Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of ACN stock opened at $357.04 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $223.21 billion, a PE ratio of 31.24, a P/E/G ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.25. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $356.03 and a two-hundred day moving average of $328.39. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.71 EPS. Analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This is a boost from Accenture's previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.66%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. Accenture's payout ratio is 51.79%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company's management believes its shares are undervalued.

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.

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