Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) COO Sells $902,725.00 in Stock

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $361.09, for a total transaction of $902,725.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 19,737 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,126,833.33. The trade was a 11.24 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link.

Accenture Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $375.13 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $358.27 and a 200 day simple moving average of $349.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The firm has a market cap of $234.75 billion, a PE ratio of 31.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. Accenture’s revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.27 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.58%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 49.66%.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Avestar Capital LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 17.3% in the 4th quarter. Avestar Capital LLC now owns 3,909 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,375,000 after purchasing an additional 576 shares during the period. AFT Forsyth & Company Inc. lifted its holdings in Accenture by 8.8% in the fourth quarter. AFT Forsyth & Company Inc. now owns 932 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $328,000 after buying an additional 75 shares during the period. MGB Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 27.6% during the 4th quarter. MGB Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,053 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $371,000 after acquiring an additional 228 shares during the period. Hemington Wealth Management raised its position in shares of Accenture by 10.7% in the 4th quarter. Hemington Wealth Management now owns 517 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $181,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raab & Moskowitz Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 4.3% in the 4th quarter. Raab & Moskowitz Asset Management LLC now owns 975 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $343,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. BMO Capital Markets raised 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. Robert W. Baird reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. BNP Paribas cut Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $383.74.

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.