Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Sees Strong Trading Volume – Time to Buy?

Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) saw unusually-strong trading volume on Tuesday . Approximately 1,053,492 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 44% from the previous session’s volume of 1,868,986 shares.The stock last traded at $362.10 and had previously closed at $351.33.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on ACN shares. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. TD Cowen upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $383.23.

Accenture Stock Performance

The business’s 50-day moving average is $357.39 and its 200 day moving average is $342.94. The company has a market cap of $224.85 billion, a PE ratio of 31.44, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 49.66%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total value of $3,385,440.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 20,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,645,075.84. This represents a 30.69 % 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, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 36,673 shares of company stock valued at $13,507,099 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new stake in Accenture during the second quarter worth about $28,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter worth about $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings 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 valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $39,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

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.