Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Stock Price Down 1.2% – Here’s What Happened

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) dropped 1.2% during mid-day trading on Monday . The stock traded as low as $356.96 and last traded at $357.91. Approximately 306,839 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 89% from the average daily volume of 2,694,103 shares. The stock had previously closed at $362.37.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Susquehanna raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Robert W. Baird restated a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday. Piper Sandler Companies reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $368.23.

Accenture Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $220.32 billion, a PE ratio of 30.83, a P/E/G ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 1.24. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $359.37 and its 200 day simple moving average is $331.89.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The firm had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.71 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.68%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 51.79%.

Accenture declared that its board has approved a share repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of Accenture 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. The trade was a 4.47 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the firm’s 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 20,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. The trade was a 30.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 378.9% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,491,736 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,941,219,000 after purchasing an additional 4,345,039 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 44.7% during the second quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,709,989 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $822,238,000 after acquiring an additional 837,677 shares in the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. raised its holdings in Accenture by 251.3% in the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 995,896 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $302,165,000 after acquiring an additional 712,400 shares during the last quarter. Holocene Advisors LP purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at about $204,895,000. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 37,788.5% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 510,358 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $180,401,000 after purchasing an additional 509,011 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.