Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) CAO Sells $91,514.72 in Stock

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total transaction of $91,514.72. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 8,915 shares in the company, valued at $3,516,610.90. The trade was a 2.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN traded down $11.54 during trading on Thursday, reaching $386.71. The stock had a trading volume of 2,827,618 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,817,746. The stock has a market cap of $242.00 billion, a PE ratio of 32.44, a PEG ratio of 3.43 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. Accenture plc has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $398.35. The business has a 50-day moving average of $361.34 and a 200-day moving average of $351.40.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.27 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.53%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the third quarter worth about $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 62.2% during the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter worth about $30,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth about $30,000. Finally, POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 64.2% in the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 34 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on ACN shares. Wolfe Research upgraded Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Piper Sandler increased their target price on Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. StockNews.com upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.22.

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.