Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Stock Price Down 0.3% - What's Next?

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) was down 0.3% during trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as low as $351.65 and last traded at $352.82. Approximately 265,142 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 90% from the average daily volume of 2,714,137 shares. The stock had previously closed at $353.95.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Barclays boosted their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $368.23.

Accenture Price Performance

The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $355.89 and a 200 day moving average price of $328.19. The firm has a market capitalization of $222.03 billion, a PE ratio of 30.87, a P/E/G ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.71 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This is an increase from Accenture's previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.67%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is 51.79%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback plan 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 reacquire up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically an indication that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total value of $1,899,689.80. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,825 shares in the company, valued at $14,490,266.50. The trade was a 11.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total transaction of $250,477.14. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,650 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,102,817. This represents a 10.64 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. State Street Corp grew its stake in Accenture by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,400,836 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $9,685,648,000 after buying an additional 471,792 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its stake in Accenture by 1.2% in the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 10,912,962 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $3,311,102,000 after acquiring an additional 131,544 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in Accenture by 2.0% in the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,652,537 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $2,999,056,000 after buying an additional 173,107 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.4% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,887,266 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,786,256,000 after purchasing an additional 80,514 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 378.9% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,491,736 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,941,219,000 after buying an additional 4,345,039 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.

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