Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Trading Down 0.3% – What’s Next?

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) shares traded down 0.3% on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $360.88 and last traded at $362.16. 1,657,040 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 39% from the average session volume of 2,710,770 shares. The stock had previously closed at $363.18.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on ACN. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Barclays raised their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Piper Sandler upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, Guggenheim raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $368.23.

Accenture Trading Down 0.3 %

The business has a 50-day moving average price of $357.61 and a 200 day moving average price of $330.24. The company has a market cap of $226.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.69, a P/E/G ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.71 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 51.79%.

Accenture declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total transaction of $170,948.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,649,265.25. This trade represents a 4.47 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.24, for a total transaction of $1,866,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,593 shares in the company, valued at $6,566,411.32. This trade represents a 22.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the third quarter worth $25,000. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the second quarter worth about $26,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at about $28,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at about $30,000. Finally, Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 607.1% during the 3rd quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.