Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Short Interest Up 16.9% in January

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) was the target of a significant growth in short interest during the month of January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 5,460,000 shares, a growth of 16.9% from the January 15th total of 4,670,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 2,600,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.1 days. Approximately 0.9% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. BNP Paribas cut shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.22.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE ACN traded down $1.55 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $387.99. The stock had a trading volume of 2,022,701 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,705,305. Accenture has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The stock has a market cap of $242.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 1.24. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $365.29 and a 200 day moving average of $354.45.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.27 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Accenture will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th were paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.53%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 49.66%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,497 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.48, for a total value of $885,136.56. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 28,866 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,232,419.68. The trade was a 7.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction of $527,200.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at $3,278,431.38. The trade was a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 62.2% in the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. Finally, POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its position in Accenture by 64.2% during the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.