Boussard & Gavaudan Investment Management LLP Invests $23.05 Million in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Boussard & Gavaudan Investment Management LLP bought a new stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 65,712 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $23,045,000. Accenture makes up 2.1% of Boussard & Gavaudan Investment Management LLP’s holdings, making the stock its 15th biggest position.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of ACN. Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its holdings in shares of 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 last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. lifted its position 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 worth $302,165,000 after acquiring an additional 712,400 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 37,788.5% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 510,358 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $180,401,000 after acquiring an additional 509,011 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $125,126,000. Finally, Swedbank AB increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 16.6% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,551,679 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $901,967,000 after buying an additional 363,401 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $362.23 on Thursday. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. The company has a market cap of $226.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.69, a P/E/G ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 1.25. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $357.61 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $330.24.

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 51.79%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Citigroup lifted their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. TD Cowen upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Mizuho raised their price objective on Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $368.23.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total transaction of $3,385,440.00. Following 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.