Allianz SE Acquires New Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Allianz SE acquired a new stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 36,094 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $12,722,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Intrust Bank NA lifted its holdings in Accenture by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. Intrust Bank NA now owns 6,093 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,143,000 after buying an additional 125 shares during the last quarter. Allstate Corp purchased a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $6,521,000. Maridea Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $209,000. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. lifted its position in Accenture by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 11,844 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,167,000 after acquiring an additional 306 shares during the period. Finally, DnB Asset Management AS raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 4.9% during the fourth quarter. DnB Asset Management AS now owns 115,242 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $40,541,000 after purchasing an additional 5,397 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN opened at $304.32 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $398.35. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $354.96 and a 200 day moving average price of $355.97. The stock has a market cap of $190.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.53, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share 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 quarter last year, the firm earned $2.77 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.95%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total value of $91,514.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 8,915 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,516,610.90. This trade represents a 2.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total transaction of $3,468,574.71. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. The trade was a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. StockNews.com cut shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Piper Sandler dropped their price target on Accenture from $396.00 to $364.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $378.23.

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.