Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Trading Up 0.1% – What’s Next?

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) shares shot up 0.1% on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $363.40 and last traded at $361.55. 290,801 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 89% from the average session volume of 2,707,264 shares. The stock had previously closed at $361.29.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on ACN. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Piper Sandler raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, Guggenheim raised their price target on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $368.23.

Accenture Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $227.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.63, a P/E/G ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.25. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $356.57 and its two-hundred day moving average is $329.61.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.71 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.63%. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 51.79%.

Accenture declared that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total transaction of $170,948.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. The trade was a 4.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total transaction 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. The trade was a 30.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $256,000. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Accenture by 31.4% during the first quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 11,570 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,010,000 after purchasing an additional 2,768 shares during the last quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 108.0% during the 1st quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC now owns 104 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. Coppell Advisory Solutions Corp. acquired a new stake in Accenture in the 1st quarter valued at about $1,784,000. Finally, Vista Investment Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 0.3% in the first quarter. Vista Investment Partners LLC now owns 13,130 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,551,000 after purchasing an additional 39 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.