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

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

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total value of $170,948.50. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,649,265.25. This trade represents a 4.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in Accenture by 4.8% during the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 24,693 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $7,492,000 after purchasing an additional 1,142 shares in the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 1.0% during the 2nd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 170,703 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $51,793,000 after purchasing an additional 1,770 shares in the last quarter. First Pacific Financial increased its stake in Accenture by 6.9% during the 2nd quarter. First Pacific Financial now owns 3,834 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,163,000 after purchasing an additional 248 shares in the last quarter. ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 39.5% during the 2nd quarter. ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 84,375 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $25,600,000 after acquiring an additional 23,899 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. now owns 65,678 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $19,927,000 after acquiring an additional 771 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on ACN. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Guggenheim boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Barclays boosted their price target 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, Piper Sandler Companies restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $374.50.

Accenture Stock Performance

Accenture stock traded up $0.24 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $357.30. 2,433,752 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,678,074. Accenture has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $223.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.26, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $360.55 and its 200-day moving average is $335.71.

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

Accenture announced that its board has initiated a share repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

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

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.