Factory Mutual Insurance Co. Makes New $14.07 Million Investment in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Factory Mutual Insurance Co. bought a new position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 40,600 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $14,072,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Accenture by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 58,434,025 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $17,945,673,000 after purchasing an additional 184,541 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in Accenture by 7.0% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,034,666 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,388,856,000 after purchasing an additional 720,647 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors grew its position in Accenture by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,479,430 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,975,517,000 after purchasing an additional 159,696 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,061,490,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,466,684 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,556,676,000 after acquiring an additional 68,635 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s 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 in the company, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s 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 in the company, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.91, for a total transaction of $1,974,437.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 161,581 shares in the company, valued at $51,045,053.71. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 20,083 shares of company stock worth $6,302,285. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Trading Up 0.3 %

ACN stock traded up $1.03 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $308.24. The company had a trading volume of 1,760,402 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,793,094. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $206.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.13, a PEG ratio of 3.39 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a 50 day moving average of $301.03 and a two-hundred day moving average of $337.09.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.15 by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $16.47 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.55 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.19 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 11.96 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 11th will be issued a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 11th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.67%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.25%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on ACN shares. Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $372.00 to $345.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 16th. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $294.00 to $293.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $320.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 17th. Redburn Atlantic raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and set a $400.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $357.09.

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.