Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Sees Significant Decline in Short Interest

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest during the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 5,900,000 shares, a decrease of 7.1% from the November 30th total of 6,350,000 shares. Currently, 1.0% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 2,540,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.3 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Mizuho upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Barclays boosted their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $383.23.

Accenture Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE ACN traded down $3.69 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $352.49. The stock had a trading volume of 1,490,080 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,690,686. The company has a market cap of $220.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.84, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The business’s 50 day moving average is $358.81 and its 200-day moving average is $340.77. Accenture has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.27 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Accenture will post 12.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.68%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 49.66%.

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

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total transaction of $170,948.50. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. This trade represents a 4.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total value of $3,385,440.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. The trade was a 30.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 36,673 shares of company stock valued at $13,507,099 over the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the third quarter valued at about $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 607.1% during the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new stake in Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $51,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

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.