Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) Shares Bought by Covington Investment Advisors Inc.

Covington Investment Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 0.7% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 44,003 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 290 shares during the quarter. Accenture makes up approximately 2.1% of Covington Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 16th largest holding. Covington Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $13,731,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Accenture by 5.7% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 63,814,234 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $19,912,594,000 after purchasing an additional 3,419,577 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 30,256.8% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,421,519 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,067,651,000 after acquiring an additional 3,410,248 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 16.8% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,325,526,000 after acquiring an additional 1,770,024 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Accenture by 2,782.1% in the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,445,281 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $450,985,000 after purchasing an additional 1,395,135 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in Accenture by 10.7% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,582,344 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,667,393,000 after purchasing an additional 732,769 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Down 1.1%

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $239.07 on Friday. Accenture PLC has a 52-week low of $238.03 and a 52-week high of $398.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $149.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.03, a PEG ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.29. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $291.16 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $315.60.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The company had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.26 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.13 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.5%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 47.13%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Guggenheim dropped their price objective on Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 23rd. Benchmark reaffirmed a “mixed” rating on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, June 20th. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $395.00 price target (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $349.00 to $353.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, June 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $360.21.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total value of $635,794.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 8,109 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,290,387.05. This represents a 21.73% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $57,315.02. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 5,249 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,482,002.66. This trade represents a 3.72% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 5,454 shares of company stock valued at $1,646,780 over the last three months. Corporate 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.