Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Insider Sells $134,437.50 in Stock

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,845,916.50. This represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink.

Angela Beatty also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Tuesday, October 22nd, Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of Accenture stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total value of $250,477.14.

Accenture Trading Down 2.1 %

NYSE:ACN traded down $7.60 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $358.77. The stock had a trading volume of 3,549,326 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,715,347. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $224.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.39, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $360.47 and a 200-day simple moving average of $337.82.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.27 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture declared that its board has approved a stock buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.65%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in Accenture during the third quarter worth approximately $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 607.1% in 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 buying an additional 85 shares during the period. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the third quarter valued at about $39,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter worth about $51,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently commented on ACN. StockNews.com cut Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $385.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, TD Cowen raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a report on Monday, September 30th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $383.23.

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.