Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Trading Up 1.2% - Should You Buy?

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report)'s share price shot up 1.2% during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $363.92 and last traded at $363.76. 309,516 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 88% from the average session volume of 2,684,575 shares. The stock had previously closed at $359.50.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on ACN. Mizuho increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Piper Sandler Companies reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a $329.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, September 20th. TD Cowen raised Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their target price for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a report on Monday, September 30th. Piper Sandler upgraded Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, UBS Group raised their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $372.09.

Accenture Price Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $228.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.83, a PEG ratio of 3.22 and a beta of 1.24. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $360.26 and its 200-day moving average price is $333.42.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its 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. The firm had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.71 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a $1.48 dividend. This is a positive change from Accenture's previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.62%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 51.79%.

Accenture declared that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company's board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total value of $3,385,440.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at $7,645,075.84. This represents a 30.69 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total transaction of $250,477.14. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,650 shares in the company, valued at $2,102,817. This represents a 10.64 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the 2nd quarter worth $26,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the 2nd quarter worth $28,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth $30,000. Finally, Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 607.1% in the 3rd quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares during the period. 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.

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