Sompo Asset Management Co. Ltd. Has $6.59 Million Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Sompo Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 6.1% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 18,650 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,070 shares during the quarter. Accenture comprises approximately 1.0% of Sompo Asset Management Co. Ltd.’s portfolio, making the stock its 27th biggest holding. Sompo Asset Management Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $6,592,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of ACN. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the first quarter worth $256,000. Bamco Inc. NY raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 45.7% in the first quarter. Bamco Inc. NY now owns 28,423 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $9,852,000 after purchasing an additional 8,910 shares during the last quarter. Waverly Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 137.0% during the 1st quarter. Waverly Advisors LLC now owns 23,048 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $7,989,000 after acquiring an additional 13,325 shares in the last quarter. BlueMar Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the 1st quarter worth about $520,000. Finally, Benchmark Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 71.3% during the first quarter. Benchmark Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,579 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $547,000 after acquiring an additional 657 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Trading Down 0.7 %

NYSE ACN opened at $358.66 on Friday. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $356.42 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $329.11. The stock has a market cap of $224.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.38, a P/E/G ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The firm 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 firm posted $2.71 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.65%. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 51.79%.

Accenture announced that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently commented on the stock. Guggenheim upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. BNP Paribas downgraded Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Susquehanna lifted their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Mizuho increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $329.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $368.23.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total transaction of $1,899,689.80. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,825 shares in the company, valued at $14,490,266.50. The trade was a 11.59 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total value of $3,385,440.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 20,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. The trade was a 30.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661. Insiders own 0.07% 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.