Insider Selling: Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) General Counsel Sells 4,750 Shares of Stock

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $369.97, for a total transaction of $1,757,357.50. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 22,976 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,500,430.72. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $364.20 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $348.78 and a 200-day moving average of $322.52. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51. The company has a market cap of $228.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.35, a P/E/G ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.71 earnings per share. Accenture’s revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.79 EPS for the current year.

Accenture declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.63%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 54.21%.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of ACN. Orrstown Financial Services Inc. lifted its position in Accenture by 25.9% during the third quarter. Orrstown Financial Services Inc. now owns 884 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $312,000 after buying an additional 182 shares in the last quarter. Autumn Glory Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 39.4% in the 3rd quarter. Autumn Glory Partners LLC now owns 7,817 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,763,000 after acquiring an additional 2,209 shares during the period. TCI Wealth Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth $217,000. Welch Group LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 7.5% in the 3rd quarter. Welch Group LLC now owns 18,590 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $6,571,000 after purchasing an additional 1,305 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Inscription Capital LLC raised its position in Accenture by 3.9% in the third quarter. Inscription Capital LLC now owns 7,794 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,755,000 after purchasing an additional 291 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently weighed in on ACN. UBS Group upped their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Bank of America upped their target price on Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $371.18.

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.