Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Cuts Stock Position in Accenture PLC $ACN

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lowered its position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 83.3% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 28,479 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 142,525 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $8,512,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 5.7% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 63,814,234 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $19,912,594,000 after buying an additional 3,419,577 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in Accenture by 63.9% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,953,621 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,793,889,000 after acquiring an additional 3,490,569 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 3.5% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 6,766,369 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,111,378,000 after purchasing an additional 228,939 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 2.1% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 6,163,393 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,923,225,000 after purchasing an additional 126,548 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 3.3% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,129,053 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,600,470,000 after purchasing an additional 164,573 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. Susquehanna cut their price objective on Accenture from $330.00 to $270.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 18th. Barclays dropped their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. HSBC started coverage on Accenture in a research report on Monday, July 28th. They set a “reduce” rating and a $240.00 target price for the company. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Accenture to a “moderate sell” rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on Accenture from $355.00 to $315.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $329.52.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $235.20 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $147.32 billion, a PE ratio of 18.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 1.29. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $256.10 and its 200-day moving average is $287.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a current ratio of 1.46. Accenture PLC has a 52 week low of $234.10 and a 52 week high of $398.35.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total transaction of $57,315.02. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 5,249 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,482,002.66. The trade was a 3.72% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total transaction of $635,794.95. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 8,109 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,290,387.05. This represents a 21.73% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 2,954 shares of company stock worth $834,280 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.