Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Hits New 12-Month Low - Here's What Happened

Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) reached a new 52-week low during trading on Monday . The stock traded as low as $275.01 and last traded at $279.77, with a volume of 1809502 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $285.06.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the subject of several research reports. Baird R W upgraded Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Guggenheim reduced their price objective on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Accenture to $355.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $378.23.

Accenture Trading Down 0.6 %

The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $336.60 and its 200-day simple moving average is $352.03. The company has a market capitalization of $177.59 billion, a PE ratio of 23.79, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

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Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. 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. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.77 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.09%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.89%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total value of $3,468,574.71. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,677,625.26. This represents a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of Accenture 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 completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,278,431.38. This trade represents a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 21,905 shares of company stock worth $8,181,753 in the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of ACN. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $2,351,683,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 30,256.8% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,421,519 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,067,651,000 after purchasing an additional 3,410,248 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 22.8% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $4,283,225,000 after buying an additional 2,260,740 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth approximately $666,495,000. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors increased its position in Accenture by 16.8% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $4,325,526,000 after acquiring an additional 1,770,024 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.