Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Issues Earnings Results

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.84 by ($0.02), Zacks reports. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The business’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.77 EPS.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN traded down $19.92 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $304.55. 3,730,687 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,747,462. Accenture has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $398.35. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $361.19 and a 200 day moving average of $357.78. 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 company has a market cap of $190.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.55, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.94%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total value of $3,468,574.71. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. This represents a 42.58 % 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, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. This represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

A hedge fund recently raised its stake in Accenture stock. Brighton Jones LLC grew its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 36.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 18,438 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 4,905 shares during the quarter. Brighton Jones LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $6,486,000 as of its most recent SEC filing. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Mizuho dropped their price target on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. StockNews.com downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Robert W. Baird upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 target price for the company in a research report on Monday. Baird R W upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, UBS Group boosted their target price on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $384.45.

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.