Short Interest in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Drops By 10.1%

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) saw a large decline in short interest during the month of August. As of August 15th, there was short interest totalling 6,610,000 shares, a decline of 10.1% from the July 31st total of 7,350,000 shares. Approximately 1.1% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 3,330,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.0 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the topic of several recent research reports. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $350.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on shares of Accenture in a research note on Monday, June 24th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $335.00 target price on the stock. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $375.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 21st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $409.00 to $295.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 15th. Finally, Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $320.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 17th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $352.33.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total value of $2,696,402.25. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 22,849 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,564,161.45. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total value of $1,166,972.80. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,819 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,652,661.95. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total transaction of $2,696,402.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 22,849 shares in the company, valued at $7,564,161.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635 in the last ninety days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth $2,061,490,000. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 1st quarter worth $820,912,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 100.0% in the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 1,751,531 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $614,615,000 after acquiring an additional 875,723 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 44.7% in the 2nd quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,709,989 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $822,238,000 after acquiring an additional 837,677 shares during the period. Finally, Winslow Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth $288,168,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $341.95 on Tuesday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $320.67 and its 200 day moving average price is $324.73. The company has a market capitalization of $214.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.81 and a beta of 1.23. Accenture has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.15 by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $16.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.55 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.19 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 11th were paid a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.51%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.25%.

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.