Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) saw a significant growth in short interest in November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 6,350,000 shares, a growth of 8.4% from the November 15th total of 5,860,000 shares. Approximately 1.0% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,470,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.6 days.
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In
ACN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Piper Sandler raised their target price on Accenture from $395.00 to $422.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Accenture from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $375.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Accenture from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their price target for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $374.50.
Read Our Latest Stock Analysis on Accenture
Insider Transactions at Accenture
In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 5,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.24, for a total value of $1,866,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 17,593 shares in the company, valued at $6,566,411.32. The trade was a 22.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total value of $250,477.14. Following 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. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company's stock.
Institutional Inflows and Outflows
Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in Accenture in the third quarter valued at $25,000. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC purchased a new position in Accenture during the second quarter worth approximately $26,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the second quarter valued at approximately $28,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Finally, Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 607.1% during the 3rd quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.
Accenture Stock Performance
Accenture stock traded up $0.25 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $357.31. 2,478,062 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,678,262. Accenture has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The business has a fifty day moving average of $360.49 and a 200 day moving average of $336.23. The firm has a market cap of $223.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.26, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.
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, beating 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 company had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $16.37 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.71 earnings per share. Accenture's revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Accenture will post 12.74 EPS for the current year.
Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally an indication that the company's management believes its stock is undervalued.
Accenture Increases Dividend
The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.66%. This is an increase from Accenture's previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is presently 51.79%.
About Accenture
(
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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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