Insider Selling: Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Insider Sells 375 Shares of Stock

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at $1,845,916.50. This represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Angela Beatty also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Tuesday, October 22nd, Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of Accenture stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total value of $250,477.14.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN stock traded down $7.60 during trading on Monday, reaching $358.77. The company had a trading volume of 3,549,326 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,715,347. The company has a market capitalization of $224.29 billion, a PE ratio of 31.39, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $360.47 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $337.82. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.27 EPS. Analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.74 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.65%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 49.66%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. Mizuho boosted their price objective on Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Susquehanna boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $385.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday. Barclays increased their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Finally, BNP Paribas cut Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $383.23.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. 1ST Source Bank grew its position in Accenture by 14.3% during the third quarter. 1ST Source Bank now owns 1,506 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $532,000 after buying an additional 188 shares in the last quarter. Copley Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $473,000. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the third quarter valued at approximately $8,920,000. Castellan Group raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 4.1% in the third quarter. Castellan Group now owns 8,165 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,886,000 after purchasing an additional 323 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB lifted its position in Accenture by 2.5% in the third quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 41,175 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $14,555,000 after purchasing an additional 1,015 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.