Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Shares Gap Down – Here’s Why

Shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) gapped down before the market opened on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $273.74, but opened at $265.00. Accenture shares last traded at $269.0640, with a volume of 1,037,428 shares.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Mizuho decreased their target price on Accenture from $348.00 to $309.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, September 29th. Dbs Bank upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 27th. BNP Paribas Exane dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $300.00 to $255.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, September 24th. Rothschild & Co Redburn lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $250.00 to $255.00 in a research report on Friday, September 19th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Accenture in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $294.04.

Accenture Price Performance

The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $251.83 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $264.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a current ratio of 1.42. The company has a market capitalization of $176.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.08, a P/E/G ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 1.26.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 18th. The information technology services provider reported $3.94 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.73 by $0.21. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.45% and a net margin of 11.02%.The business had revenue of $18.74 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $18.51 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.59 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.520-13.900 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 14th. Investors of record on Friday, October 10th were given a $1.63 dividend. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 53.66%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.57, for a total transaction of $2,246,130.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 23,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,868,888.12. This trade represents a 27.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Manish Sharma sold 6,902 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.01, for a total transaction of $1,725,569.02. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 1,860 shares in the company, valued at approximately $465,018.60. This trade represents a 78.77% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 33,319 shares of company stock valued at $8,335,225. Insiders own 0.02% 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. Global Retirement Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $2,658,000. C WorldWide Group Holding A S raised its stake in Accenture by 35.9% during the 2nd quarter. C WorldWide Group Holding A S now owns 8,148 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,435,000 after purchasing an additional 2,151 shares during the period. Truist Financial Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 7.0% in the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 436,202 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $130,376,000 after purchasing an additional 28,685 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the second quarter worth $2,216,850,000. Finally, Redwood Investments LLC raised its position in Accenture by 6.2% during the first quarter. Redwood Investments LLC now owns 22,087 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $6,892,000 after buying an additional 1,287 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.