Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Misses Expectations By $0.02 EPS

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) released its earnings results on Thursday. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.84 by ($0.02), Zacks reports. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.77 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN traded down $19.92 on Thursday, reaching $304.55. 3,730,687 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,747,462. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $361.19 and its 200 day moving average price is $357.78. Accenture has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The firm has a market capitalization of $190.59 billion, a PE ratio of 25.55, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.94%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 49.66%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total value of $3,468,574.71. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. This trade represents a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

A hedge fund recently raised its stake in Accenture stock. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 36.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 18,438 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,905 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $6,486,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently issued reports on ACN. Baird R W upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday. StockNews.com lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. UBS Group increased their price target on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $384.45.

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.