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

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) was the target of a significant decline in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 5,400,000 shares, a decline of 8.5% from the December 15th total of 5,900,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 2,440,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.2 days. Approximately 0.9% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the sale, the insider now owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 17,125 shares of company stock valued at $6,184,820. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Cerro Pacific Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Cerro Pacific Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,155 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,115,000 after buying an additional 96 shares in the last quarter. Apeiron RIA LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 5.0% in the fourth quarter. Apeiron RIA LLC now owns 1,109 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $390,000 after acquiring an additional 53 shares during the last quarter. Veracity Capital LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 5.7% during the fourth quarter. Veracity Capital LLC now owns 2,271 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $799,000 after purchasing an additional 123 shares during the last quarter. Red Door Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 6.7% in the fourth quarter. Red Door Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,143 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $402,000 after purchasing an additional 72 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Planning Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 15.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital Planning Advisors LLC now owns 11,187 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,935,000 after purchasing an additional 1,472 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $352.33 on Monday. 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 has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The company’s fifty day moving average is $357.59 and its 200-day moving average is $345.65. The stock has a market cap of $220.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.56, a P/E/G ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 1.24.

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, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.27 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Accenture will post 12.69 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

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

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have issued reports on ACN shares. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Wolfe Research upgraded Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Guggenheim boosted their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target 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.