Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Stock Price Down 0.3% – Time to Sell?

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)’s stock price traded down 0.3% on Wednesday . The stock traded as low as $351.65 and last traded at $352.82. 265,142 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 90% from the average session volume of 2,714,137 shares. The stock had previously closed at $353.95.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on ACN. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Bank of America increased their price objective on Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $368.23.

Accenture Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $225.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.25. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $356.24 and its 200-day moving average is $328.61.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.71 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.64%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 51.79%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total transaction of $2,945,801.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 12,188 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,412,909.16. This trade represents a 40.03 % 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. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ACN. Capital International Inc. CA acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 1st quarter valued at $1,063,000. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL bought a new position in Accenture during the first quarter worth about $256,000. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 13.1% during the 1st quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 288,313 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $99,932,000 after buying an additional 33,357 shares during the period. GUARDCAP ASSET MANAGEMENT Ltd raised its position in shares of Accenture by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. GUARDCAP ASSET MANAGEMENT Ltd now owns 1,759,189 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $609,752,000 after acquiring an additional 18,950 shares during the period. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 4.1% during the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 3,797,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,316,086,000 after acquiring an additional 148,738 shares during 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.