Short Interest in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Drops By 6.9%

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) saw a significant drop in short interest in the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 5,760,000 shares, a drop of 6.9% from the October 15th total of 6,190,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 2,270,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.5 days. Currently, 0.9% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Accenture Stock Up 0.6 %

NYSE ACN opened at $355.79 on Monday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $355.55 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $327.46. Accenture has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The firm has a market cap of $222.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.93, a PEG ratio of 3.09 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 for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.71 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Accenture will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.66%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 51.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total value of $170,948.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,649,265.25. The trade was a 4.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board boosted its holdings in Accenture by 19.1% in the first quarter. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board now owns 2,097 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $727,000 after purchasing an additional 336 shares during the last quarter. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 55.0% in the 1st quarter. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,352 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $469,000 after buying an additional 480 shares during the period. Trustmark National Bank Trust Department purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 1st quarter worth approximately $275,000. Delta Asset Management LLC TN boosted its position in Accenture by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. Delta Asset Management LLC TN now owns 38,742 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $13,428,000 after buying an additional 135 shares during the period. Finally, Atlanta Consulting Group Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $243,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Piper Sandler Companies reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $329.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 20th. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Guggenheim increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $368.23.

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.