Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Short Interest Update

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) saw a significant growth in short interest in May. As of May 31st, there was short interest totalling 8,210,000 shares, a growth of 14.7% from the May 15th total of 7,160,000 shares. Currently, 1.3% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 3,100,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.6 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the topic of several analyst reports. Susquehanna reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $360.00 price objective (down from $400.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. Wedbush cut their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $350.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Piper Sandler cut their target price on Accenture from $379.00 to $320.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Bank of America cut their target price on Accenture from $419.00 to $365.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Finally, Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $395.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, May 24th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $362.68.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value of $1,536,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at $4,208,606.78. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value of $1,536,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at $4,208,606.78. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total value of $1,369,747.96. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 30,702 shares in the company, valued at $9,705,516.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 28,083 shares of company stock worth $8,959,325. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Mosaic Family Wealth Partners LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 5.2% in the first quarter. Mosaic Family Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,366 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $473,000 after acquiring an additional 67 shares in the last quarter. Clear Rock Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 2.6% in the first quarter. Clear Rock Advisors LLC now owns 6,588 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,283,000 after acquiring an additional 168 shares in the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale boosted its stake in Accenture by 8.0% in the first quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 1,680,610 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $575,480,000 after acquiring an additional 124,068 shares in the last quarter. Motiv8 Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 22.8% during the first quarter. Motiv8 Investments LLC now owns 1,671 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $579,000 after buying an additional 310 shares during the period. Finally, Cetera Advisor Networks LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.6% during the first quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC now owns 50,872 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $17,633,000 after buying an additional 799 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN opened at $285.53 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $191.52 billion, a PE ratio of 25.89, a P/E/G ratio of 3.12 and a beta of 1.22. Accenture has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $303.42 and its 200 day moving average price is $338.41.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.11. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The business had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.85 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.69 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture will post 12.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 11th were issued a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 46.78%.

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.