Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Stock Price Down 0.5% - Here's Why

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) fell 0.5% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $349.99 and last traded at $350.99. 528,553 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 81% from the average session volume of 2,716,505 shares. The stock had previously closed at $352.79.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have weighed in on the company. Barclays boosted their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Mizuho increased their target price on Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Piper Sandler Companies restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $329.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, September 20th. TD Cowen raised shares of Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their target price for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $368.23.

Accenture Stock Up 0.1 %

The business's fifty day moving average is $355.77 and its two-hundred day moving average is $327.83. The firm has a market cap of $220.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.25.

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This is a positive change from Accenture's previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.68%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is presently 51.79%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase 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 repurchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually an indication that the company's board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total transaction of $3,385,440.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 20,324 shares of the company's stock, valued at $7,645,075.84. This trade represents a 30.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.07% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the second quarter worth about $26,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 607.1% during the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Creekmur Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 108.0% in the 1st quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC now owns 104 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is 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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