Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) CAO Melissa A. Burgum Sells 1,487 Shares

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total value of $527,200.98. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at $3,278,431.38. This trade represents a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link.

Accenture Stock Up 0.7 %

ACN opened at $359.08 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $224.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.12, a P/E/G ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.24. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $357.40 and a 200-day simple moving average of $346.66.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.27 earnings per share. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase program 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 buy up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.65%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 49.66%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the third quarter valued at $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at about $30,000. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $34,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 607.1% in the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Berbice Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $35,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on ACN. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Wolfe Research upgraded Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Barclays upped their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $383.74.

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.