Stock Traders Purchase Large Volume of Accenture Put Options (NYSE:ACN)

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) was the target of some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Stock investors purchased 44,309 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of 449% compared to the typical volume of 8,073 put options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the subject of a number of research reports. TD Cowen dropped their price target on Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Bank of America increased their price target on Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on Accenture from $364.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on Accenture from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.00.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.91, for a total transaction of $1,974,437.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 161,581 shares in the company, valued at $51,045,053.71. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.91, for a total transaction of $1,974,437.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 161,581 shares in the company, valued at $51,045,053.71. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total value of $1,369,747.96. Following the sale, the general counsel now owns 30,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,705,516.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 27,490 shares of company stock worth $9,056,564. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Chilton Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 180.0% in the 4th quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. bought a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Annapolis Financial Services LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 507.7% in the 1st quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 79 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. bought a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. Finally, Atwood & Palmer Inc. lifted its position in Accenture by 214.8% in the 1st quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. now owns 85 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Down 1.5 %

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $308.98 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $350.89 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $341.97. Accenture has a 1-year low of $261.68 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The company has a market cap of $207.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.01, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 1.19.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. The business’s revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.69 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Accenture will post 12.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be given a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.67%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 46.78%.

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.