Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Trading Up 0.2% – Still a Buy?

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) shares traded up 0.2% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $365.67 and last traded at $363.75. 370,454 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 86% from the average session volume of 2,704,836 shares. The stock had previously closed at $363.18.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Piper Sandler upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the company from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Monday, September 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies restated a “neutral” rating and set a $329.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $368.23.

Accenture Stock Down 0.3 %

The business’s 50-day moving average price is $358.15 and its 200-day moving average price is $330.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $226.41 billion, a PE ratio of 31.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The firm’s 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 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 51.79%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total transaction of $170,948.50. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at $3,649,265.25. This trade represents a 4.47 % 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 the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total value of $3,385,440.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. This trade represents a 30.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new position in Accenture during the third quarter worth $25,000. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the second quarter worth $26,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Accenture during the third quarter worth $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC increased its position 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 acquiring an additional 85 shares during the period. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the third quarter worth $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.