Cigna Investments Inc. New Sells 55 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Cigna Investments Inc. New trimmed its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 6,412 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 55 shares during the quarter. Cigna Investments Inc. New’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,255,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of ACN. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,447 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $511,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. BSW Wealth Partners boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. BSW Wealth Partners now owns 4,077 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,441,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the period. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 5.7% in the 4th quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $182,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the period. Slow Capital Inc. boosted its stake in Accenture by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Slow Capital Inc. now owns 9,067 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,205,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the period. Finally, Tradition Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,951 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,871,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, 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 transaction of $1,723,205.00. Following the sale, the general counsel now owns 20,526 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,446,422.28. This trade represents a 18.79 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total value of $3,468,574.71. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares in the company, valued at $4,677,625.26. The trade was a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 target price for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.22.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $386.72 on Tuesday. 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 $242.00 billion, a PE ratio of 32.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 1.24. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $362.30 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $352.34. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company’s revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.27 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

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

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.