Short Interest in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Drops By 8.5%

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) was the recipient of a significant decline in short interest in December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 5,400,000 shares, a decline of 8.5% from the December 15th total of 5,900,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 2,440,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.2 days. Currently, 0.9% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN traded up $1.77 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $352.33. The stock had a trading volume of 4,061,199 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,320,392. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $357.59 and a 200-day simple moving average of $345.65. The firm has a market cap of $220.49 billion, a PE ratio of 29.56, a P/E/G ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $3.27 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture will post 12.69 EPS for the current year.

Accenture declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding 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 programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.68%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 49.66%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently issued reports on ACN. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Guggenheim increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $385.04.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares in the company, valued at $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total transaction of $3,385,440.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 20,324 shares in the company, 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 26,125 shares of company stock worth $9,570,260 over the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new position in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in 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 worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at $39,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

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.