Nordea Investment Management AB Reduces Stock Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Nordea Investment Management AB cut its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 18.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 809,307 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 178,366 shares during the quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB owned about 0.13% of Accenture worth $285,394,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new position in Accenture during the third quarter worth about $25,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $28,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 607.1% during the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the third quarter worth $39,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of Accenture 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 sale, 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total value of $170,948.50. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,649,265.25. This represents a 4.47 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 36,673 shares of company stock valued at $13,507,099. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Up 1.4 %

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $353.85 on Monday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $357.59 and its 200 day moving average is $342.62. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $221.44 billion, a PE ratio of 30.96, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.27 EPS. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.74 EPS for the current year.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.67%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.66%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Susquehanna increased their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Robert W. Baird reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $383.23.

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.