Insider Selling: Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) CFO Sells $1,899,689.80 in Stock

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total transaction of $1,899,689.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 38,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,490,266.50. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $376.86 on Monday. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $236.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.51, a PEG ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $345.48 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $321.59.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share 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%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.71 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.57%. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 54.21%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in Accenture during the first quarter worth about $820,912,000. Clearbridge Investments LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 44.7% in the 2nd quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,709,989 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $822,238,000 after purchasing an additional 837,677 shares during the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. lifted its stake in Accenture by 251.3% during the second quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 995,896 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $302,165,000 after purchasing an additional 712,400 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors boosted its holdings in Accenture by 196.5% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 988,094 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $342,483,000 after buying an additional 654,807 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Accenture by 1.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 59,718,732 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $20,699,110,000 after buying an additional 635,349 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Susquehanna increased their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. StockNews.com upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, TD Cowen upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $371.18.

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.