Covington Investment Advisors Inc. Has $15.38 Million Stock Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Covington Investment Advisors Inc. reduced its position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 43,713 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 365 shares during the period. Accenture comprises about 1.3% of Covington Investment Advisors Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 15th biggest position. Covington Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $15,378,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Cynosure Group LLC raised its position in Accenture by 18.4% during the 3rd quarter. Cynosure Group LLC now owns 1,504 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $532,000 after purchasing an additional 234 shares during the last quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC increased its position 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 valued at $1,616,000 after acquiring an additional 442 shares in the last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $39,000. First Commonwealth Financial Corp PA purchased a new stake in Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth about $219,000. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its stake in Accenture by 4.6% in the third quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 535,660 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $189,345,000 after purchasing an additional 23,459 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Baird R W upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price target on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $378.23.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 8,915 shares in the company, valued at $3,516,610.90. This represents a 2.54 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,497 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.48, for a total value of $885,136.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 28,866 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,232,419.68. This represents a 7.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 21,905 shares of company stock worth $8,181,753 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $308.51 on Friday. 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 business’s 50-day moving average is $355.92 and its 200 day moving average is $356.23. The firm has a market capitalization of $193.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.88, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 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 issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (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 firm had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.77 EPS. Accenture’s revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 1.92%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 48.89%.

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.