Angie Y. Park Sells 685 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Stock

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total value of $242,750.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 8,674 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,073,892.12. This represents a 7.32 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Accenture Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of ACN stock opened at $359.08 on Thursday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $357.40 and a 200-day simple moving average of $346.66. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The company has a market cap of $224.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.12, a PEG ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.24. 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 (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. The business 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%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $3.27 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.65%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 49.66%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the topic of several research analyst reports. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Guggenheim increased their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $383.74.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in Accenture during the third quarter worth about $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at about $30,000. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 607.1% during the 3rd quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the period. Finally, Berbice Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

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.