Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Shares Gap Down to $307.17

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) gapped down before the market opened on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $307.17, but opened at $299.92. Accenture shares last traded at $302.87, with a volume of 601,258 shares changing hands.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on ACN shares. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $372.00 to $345.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 16th. Mizuho decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $398.00 to $350.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $382.00 to $300.00 in a research note on Wednesday. Susquehanna reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $360.00 to $350.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, June 21st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $395.00 to $340.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $352.74.

Accenture Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $204.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.13, a P/E/G ratio of 3.42 and a beta of 1.21. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $300.89 and its 200-day simple moving average is $336.88.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.15 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $16.47 billion during 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 business’s revenue was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.19 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 11.96 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 11th will be issued a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 11th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.69%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.25%.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 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. Insiders have sold a total of 20,083 shares of company stock worth $6,302,285 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Mosaic Family Wealth Partners LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 5.2% in the 1st quarter. Mosaic Family Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,366 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $473,000 after buying an additional 67 shares during the period. Clear Rock Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. Clear Rock Advisors LLC now owns 6,588 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,283,000 after purchasing an additional 168 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 8.0% during the first quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 1,680,610 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $575,480,000 after purchasing an additional 124,068 shares in the last quarter. Motiv8 Investments LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 22.8% during the first quarter. Motiv8 Investments LLC now owns 1,671 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $579,000 after buying an additional 310 shares during the period. Finally, Cetera Advisor Networks LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 1.6% in the first quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC now owns 50,872 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $17,633,000 after buying an additional 799 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by 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.