Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.01 EPS

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01, Zacks reports. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.77 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE:ACN traded up $1.92 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $307.24. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,791,006 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,772,675. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The company has a market capitalization of $192.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.78, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $358.32 and a 200-day simple moving average of $357.10.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.93%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 49.66%.

Remove Ads

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on ACN shares. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Accenture from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their target price for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on Accenture from $396.00 to $364.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Guggenheim reduced their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded Accenture from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $425.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $378.91.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total value of $3,468,574.71. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. This represents a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total value of $91,514.72. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 8,915 shares in the company, valued at $3,516,610.90. This represents a 2.54 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

An institutional investor recently raised its position in Accenture stock. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 36.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 18,438 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 4,905 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $6,486,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

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.