Allstate Corp Takes $6.52 Million Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Allstate Corp purchased a new position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 18,536 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $6,521,000.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. CreativeOne Wealth LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 10.7% during the third quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC now owns 4,571 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,616,000 after buying an additional 442 shares in the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board boosted its stake in Accenture by 12.8% during the third quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 27,296 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $9,649,000 after buying an additional 3,100 shares during the last quarter. Financial Counselors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 11.7% in the third quarter. Financial Counselors Inc. now owns 34,497 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $12,194,000 after purchasing an additional 3,602 shares during the period. Vinva Investment Management Ltd increased its position in Accenture by 94.3% during the third quarter. Vinva Investment Management Ltd now owns 12,855 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,495,000 after purchasing an additional 6,238 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Isthmus Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Isthmus Partners LLC now owns 34,239 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $12,103,000 after purchasing an additional 288 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Stock Down 1.4 %

Accenture stock opened at $304.32 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $190.44 billion, a PE ratio of 25.53, 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. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $354.96 and its two-hundred day moving average is $355.97. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.77 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal 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 dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.95%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 17th. StockNews.com lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Robert W. Baird raised shares of 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. Finally, Baird R W raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $378.23.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 961 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.47, for a total value of $340,645.67. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,484 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,943,913.48. This represents a 14.91 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.78, for a total value of $1,723,205.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 20,526 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,446,422.28. This trade represents a 18.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753 over the last ninety days. 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.