Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) CEO Sells $3,385,440.00 in Stock

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of Accenture stock traded down $4.22 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $371.81. 1,143,492 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,726,901. The firm has a market capitalization of $233.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $346.72 and its 200 day moving average price is $321.91.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.71 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.59%. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 54.21%.

Accenture announced that its board has initiated a stock repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on ACN. Guggenheim raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Mizuho raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Susquehanna raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on shares of Accenture in a report on Monday, June 24th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $335.00 target price for the company. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $371.18.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Annapolis Financial Services LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 507.7% during the 1st quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 79 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the second quarter valued at about $26,000. CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. acquired a new stake in Accenture in the first quarter valued at about $35,000. Tsfg LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 267.9% in the first quarter. Tsfg LLC now owns 103 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Creekmur Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 108.0% in the first quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC now owns 104 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 54 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.