Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Trading Down 1% – Here’s What Happened

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) traded down 1% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $354.89 and last traded at $356.43. 521,280 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 81% from the average session volume of 2,692,575 shares. The stock had previously closed at $360.03.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler Companies reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $329.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 20th. TD Cowen raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Piper Sandler raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $372.09.

Accenture Stock Up 1.3 %

The company has a market capitalization of $226.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.73, a P/E/G ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 1.24. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $359.88 and its 200-day moving average price is $332.26.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The firm’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.71 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.76 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.63%. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 51.79%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total value of $250,477.14. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,650 shares in the company, valued at $2,102,817. The trade was a 10.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the third quarter valued at about $25,000. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the second quarter valued at about $26,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the second quarter valued at about $28,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the third quarter valued at about $30,000. Finally, Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 607.1% in the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.