Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) is Cincinnati Insurance Co.’s 8th Largest Position

Cincinnati Insurance Co. lowered its position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 8.7% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 615,765 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 58,400 shares during the period. Accenture comprises about 3.5% of Cincinnati Insurance Co.’s portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest position. Cincinnati Insurance Co. owned about 0.09% of Accenture worth $213,430,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. increased its holdings in Accenture by 7.4% during the fourth quarter. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. now owns 29,204 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $10,248,000 after buying an additional 2,008 shares during the last quarter. TrinityPoint Wealth LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. TrinityPoint Wealth LLC now owns 3,646 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,279,000 after buying an additional 125 shares during the last quarter. Buckingham Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in Accenture by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. Buckingham Capital Management Inc. now owns 27,559 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $9,671,000 after buying an additional 900 shares during the last quarter. Redwood Investments LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 8.3% during the fourth quarter. Redwood Investments LLC now owns 20,227 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $7,098,000 after purchasing an additional 1,542 shares during the period. Finally, Focus Financial Network Inc. ADV bought a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $4,594,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of Accenture in a research report on Monday, June 24th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $335.00 target price for the company. Susquehanna cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $360.00 to $350.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, June 21st. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $395.00 to $340.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, April 27th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $375.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, June 21st. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $351.82.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value of $1,536,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value of $1,536,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 4,500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $316.00, for a total transaction of $1,422,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 42,781 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,518,796. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 20,083 shares of company stock valued at $6,302,285 over the last three months. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Accenture Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of ACN stock traded down $1.00 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $298.47. 2,479,223 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,895,906. The company has a market capitalization of $187.05 billion, a PE ratio of 27.33, a PEG ratio of 3.34 and a beta of 1.23. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $299.08 and its 200-day simple moving average is $333.95.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.15 by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $16.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.55 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. The company’s revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.19 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 11.95 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 11th will be paid a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.73%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 47.25%.

Accenture Company 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.