Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Short Interest Down 6.9% in October

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) was the recipient of a large drop in short interest during 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. Approximately 0.9% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 2,270,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.5 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently commented on ACN. TD Cowen raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Piper Sandler Companies restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 20th. StockNews.com lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Citigroup raised their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Finally, Mizuho increased their price objective on Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $368.23.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN stock traded down $2.10 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $350.69. The company had a trading volume of 284,962 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,715,014. The firm has a market cap of $219.24 billion, a PE ratio of 30.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.25. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $355.77 and a 200-day moving average price of $327.83. Accenture has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. The firm 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 company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.71 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Accenture will post 12.77 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.69%. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 51.79%.

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

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total value of $2,945,801.52. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 12,188 shares in the company, valued at $4,412,909.16. This represents a 40.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC bought a new stake in Accenture during the second quarter valued at about $26,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $28,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter worth $30,000. Finally, Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 607.1% in the 3rd quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.