Conning Inc. Has $1.42 Million Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Conning Inc. trimmed its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 7.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,045 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 346 shares during the quarter. Conning Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,423,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $34,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 607.1% during the 3rd 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 during the period. Finally, Berbice Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $35,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Wolfe Research upgraded Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Robert W. Baird reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price target for the company. in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.22.

Accenture Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $386.04 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $361.83 and its 200-day moving average is $351.65. 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 market capitalization of $241.58 billion, a PE ratio of 32.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.43 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 business had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm’s revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.27 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the business’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 sale, the insider now owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total value of $91,514.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 8,915 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.