Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Short Interest Up 8.4% in November

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) saw a large growth in short interest during the month of November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 6,350,000 shares, a growth of 8.4% from the November 15th total of 5,860,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 2,470,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.6 days. Approximately 1.0% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.24, for a total transaction of $1,866,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,593 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,566,411.32. This represents a 22.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter worth approximately $25,000. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at $26,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the second quarter worth $28,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in Accenture during the third quarter worth about $30,000. Finally, Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in 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 worth $35,000 after buying an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN stock traded down $0.80 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $356.26. The company had a trading volume of 419,585 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,669,399. The company has a market capitalization of $222.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.25, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $360.55 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $335.71.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.71 EPS. Accenture’s revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that Accenture will post 12.74 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a $1.48 dividend. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 51.79%.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Piper Sandler raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $395.00 to $422.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Susquehanna upped their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, BNP Paribas downgraded Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $374.50.

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.