Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) CEO Julie Spellman Sweet Sells 2,497 Shares

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,497 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.48, for a total transaction of $885,136.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 28,866 shares in the company, valued at $10,232,419.68. This trade represents a 7.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Julie Spellman Sweet also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, October 28th, Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of Accenture stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total transaction of $2,945,801.52.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE ACN traded up $1.04 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $353.63. 394,309 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,492,124. The company has a market cap of $221.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $357.49 and a 200 day moving average of $346.26. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.27 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current 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. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.67%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 49.66%.

Accenture announced that its board has initiated a share buyback plan 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 reacquire up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 378.9% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,491,736 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,941,219,000 after purchasing an additional 4,345,039 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 44.7% in the second quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,709,989 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $822,238,000 after purchasing an additional 837,677 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in Accenture by 2,666.5% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 715,219 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $251,607,000 after buying an additional 689,366 shares during the last quarter. Holocene Advisors LP acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the third quarter valued at approximately $204,895,000. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in Accenture by 37,788.5% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 510,358 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $180,401,000 after buying an additional 509,011 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the topic of several analyst reports. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. StockNews.com raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target 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, Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $385.04.

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.