Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN – Get Free Report) Director Paula A. Price sold 551 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $345.36, for a total value of $190,293.36. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 6,583 shares in the company, valued at $2,273,504.88. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link.
Accenture Price Performance
Shares of NYSE:ACN traded down $1.02 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $353.43. The company had a trading volume of 1,531,121 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,231,507. The company has a market cap of $221.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.82, a PEG ratio of 3.26 and a beta of 1.23. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $242.80 and a 12-month high of $354.93. The company has a fifty day moving average of $323.89 and a two-hundred day moving average of $317.22.
Accenture (NYSE:ACN – Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.27 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.14 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $16.22 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.17 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 29.08% and a net margin of 10.65%. Accenture’s revenue was up 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.08 EPS. Research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.21 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Accenture declared that its board has approved a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, September 28th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.
Accenture Announces Dividend
The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 18th will be issued a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 17th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.82%.
Institutional Inflows and Outflows
Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 58,434,025 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $17,945,673,000 after purchasing an additional 184,541 shares during the last quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 48.4% in the 3rd quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky now owns 84,200 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $25,858,000 after acquiring an additional 27,451 shares during the last quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 15.3% in the 3rd quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,212 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $372,000 after acquiring an additional 161 shares during the last quarter. Dagco Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 215.5% in the 3rd quarter. Dagco Inc. now owns 15,881 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,877,000 after acquiring an additional 10,847 shares during the last quarter. Finally, VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 221.5% in the 3rd quarter. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC now owns 209 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $64,000 after acquiring an additional 144 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.42% of the company’s stock.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. TD Cowen dropped their price target on Accenture from $312.00 to $300.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 29th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $385.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 20th. Piper Sandler Companies decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $314.00 to $312.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 22nd. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 11th. Finally, Citigroup restated a “buy” rating and issued a $358.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a report on Monday, September 18th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $348.59.
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.