Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Hits New 52-Week High - Here's What Happened

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) hit a new 52-week high on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $389.83 and last traded at $387.30, with a volume of 340739 shares. The stock had previously closed at $385.21.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on ACN. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Accenture from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their price objective for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $387.22.

Accenture Stock Down 0.3 %

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 company has a market cap of $241.58 billion, a PE ratio of 32.39, a P/E/G ratio of 3.43 and a beta of 1.24. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $361.83 and its 200-day simple moving average is $351.65.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.27 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.53%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is presently 49.66%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total value of $91,514.72. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 8,915 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,516,610.90. This trade represents a 2.54 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Sage Mountain Advisors LLC raised its position in Accenture by 45.2% in the fourth quarter. Sage Mountain Advisors LLC now owns 6,334 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $2,228,000 after purchasing an additional 1,971 shares during the period. Davis R M Inc. lifted its position in Accenture by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Davis R M Inc. now owns 147,195 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $51,782,000 after acquiring an additional 2,528 shares in the last quarter. Vista Investment Partners II LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,385,000. Morton Community Bank lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Morton Community Bank now owns 11,182 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $3,934,000 after purchasing an additional 94 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tortoise Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. Tortoise Investment Management LLC now owns 1,116 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $393,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company's stock.

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.