36,094 Shares in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Bought by Allianz SE

Allianz SE bought a new stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 36,094 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $12,722,000.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of ACN. Norges Bank bought a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth about $2,351,683,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $666,495,000. Swedbank AB grew its position in shares of Accenture by 47.5% during the 4th quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,763,690 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,324,029,000 after purchasing an additional 1,212,011 shares in the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 51,837.3% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 860,601 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $302,751,000 after acquiring an additional 858,944 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Amundi lifted its position in Accenture by 27.9% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 3,790,069 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,353,909,000 after purchasing an additional 826,038 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total transaction of $3,468,574.71. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. The trade was a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total transaction of $91,514.72. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 8,915 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,516,610.90. The trade was a 2.54 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 21,905 shares of company stock worth $8,181,753 over the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Trading Down 1.4 %

NYSE:ACN opened at $304.32 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $190.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.53, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $354.96 and a 200-day simple moving average of $355.97. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.64 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.77 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.95%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 48.89%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on ACN. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Accenture to $355.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $378.23.

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.