Accenture plc Plans Quarterly Dividend of $1.48 (NYSE:ACN)

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, March 20th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a dividend of 1.48 per share by the information technology services provider on Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.93%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th.

Accenture has raised its dividend by an average of 14.4% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 20 years. Accenture has a payout ratio of 43.1% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Accenture to earn $13.73 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $5.92 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 43.1%.

Accenture Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of ACN traded up $1.92 on Monday, reaching $307.24. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,791,006 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,772,675. The stock has a market capitalization of $192.27 billion, a PE ratio of 25.78, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Accenture has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $358.32 and a 200-day moving average of $357.10.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its 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 company had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. Accenture's quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.77 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Accenture will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

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Insider Buying and Selling

In other 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. This represents a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total value of $91,514.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 8,915 shares in the company, valued at $3,516,610.90. This represents a 2.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

A hedge fund recently raised its stake in Accenture stock. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 36.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 18,438 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 4,905 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $6,486,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Guggenheim decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Mizuho cut their target price on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on Accenture from $425.00 to $370.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. Finally, Baird R W upgraded Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $378.91.

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.