Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Insider Sells $340,645.67 in Stock

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) insider Angela Beatty sold 961 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.47, for a total transaction of $340,645.67. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,484 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,943,913.48. The trade was a 14.91 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link.

Angela Beatty also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, December 23rd, Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of Accenture stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50.

Accenture Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $359.08 on Thursday. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The business’s fifty day moving average is $357.40 and its two-hundred day moving average is $346.66. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The firm has a market cap of $224.71 billion, a PE ratio of 30.12, a P/E/G ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.24.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. 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 dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.66%.

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in ACN. Mayflower Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Mayflower Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,855 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,004,000 after acquiring an additional 104 shares during the last quarter. Axiom Financial Strategies LLC increased its position in Accenture by 4.5% during the 4th quarter. Axiom Financial Strategies LLC now owns 868 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $305,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $340,000. Hutchens & Kramer Investment Management Group LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 6.2% during the fourth quarter. Hutchens & Kramer Investment Management Group LLC now owns 800 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $281,000 after buying an additional 47 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Patrick M Sweeney & Associates Inc. increased its position in shares of Accenture by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Patrick M Sweeney & Associates Inc. now owns 1,969 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $693,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Robert W. Baird reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Bank of America raised 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. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Guggenheim boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $383.74.

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.