Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Position Decreased by Cigna Investments Inc. New

Cigna Investments Inc. New cut its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,412 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 55 shares during the quarter. Cigna Investments Inc. New’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,255,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the third quarter worth approximately $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Accenture during the third quarter worth $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 64.2% in the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 34 shares during the period. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $34,000. Finally, Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 607.1% in the 3rd quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Robert W. Baird restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $370.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. StockNews.com raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price target for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.22.

Accenture Stock Performance

Accenture stock opened at $386.72 on Tuesday. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $398.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $362.30 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $352.34. The stock has a market cap of $242.00 billion, a PE ratio of 32.44, a P/E/G ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 1.24.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.27 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.66%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total transaction of $242,750.30. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 8,674 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,073,892.12. This represents a 7.32 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at $1,845,916.50. This represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.