Seilern Investment Management Ltd Invests $99.95 Million in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Seilern Investment Management Ltd purchased a new position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm purchased 284,114 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $99,948,000. Accenture accounts for 5.7% of Seilern Investment Management Ltd’s portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest position.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 78.6% in the 3rd quarter. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,448 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,047,000 after purchasing an additional 5,038 shares in the last quarter. MQS Management LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the third quarter valued at approximately $1,040,000. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 70.6% in the 3rd quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 35,591 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $12,581,000 after acquiring an additional 14,724 shares during the last quarter. M&G PLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 34.1% during the 3rd quarter. M&G PLC now owns 292,808 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $103,361,000 after acquiring an additional 74,438 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 18.7% during the 2nd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 172,199 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $52,247,000 after acquiring an additional 27,168 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 5,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,102,817. This trade represents a 10.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total transaction of $2,945,801.52. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 12,188 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,412,909.16. This represents a 40.03 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 17,125 shares of company stock valued at $6,184,820 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Up 0.5 %

ACN opened at $352.33 on Monday. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $220.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.56, a PEG ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 1.24. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $357.59 and its two-hundred day moving average is $345.65. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.27 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding 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 typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 49.66%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently issued reports on ACN. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. StockNews.com raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $385.04.

Accenture Profile

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.