Covington Investment Advisors Inc. Sells 365 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Covington Investment Advisors Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 43,713 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 365 shares during the period. Accenture comprises 1.3% of Covington Investment Advisors Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 15th biggest position. Covington Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $15,378,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 62.2% during the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its position in Accenture by 64.2% during the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 34 shares during the period. Finally, Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $34,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Down 0.9 %

Accenture stock opened at $308.51 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $355.92 and a 200-day moving average of $356.23. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $398.35. The company has a market cap of $193.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.88, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results 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 return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.77 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.92%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on ACN shares. StockNews.com downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Robert W. Baird raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Baird R W raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $396.00 to $364.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $378.23.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 in the company, valued at $3,073,892.12. This trade represents a 7.32 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,497 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.48, for a total transaction of $885,136.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 28,866 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,232,419.68. This trade represents a 7.96 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Profile

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.