Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Increases Dividend to $1.48 Per Share

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, September 26th, Zacks reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a dividend of 1.48 per share by the information technology services provider on Friday, November 15th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.64%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29.

Accenture has raised its dividend by an average of 12.3% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 20 consecutive years. Accenture has a dividend payout ratio of 46.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Accenture to earn $12.64 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $5.92 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 46.8%.

Accenture Trading Up 1.0 %

NYSE ACN opened at $360.38 on Wednesday. Accenture has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $225.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.00, a P/E/G ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 1.25. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $337.24 and its 200-day moving average price is $319.79.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.71 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Accenture will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total transaction of $1,649,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total transaction of $1,166,972.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,652,661.95. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total value of $1,649,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635 in the last quarter. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Citigroup upped their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Guggenheim upped their price target on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. UBS Group increased their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Susquehanna increased their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus 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.