Kathleen R. Mcclure Sells 5,090 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Stock

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total transaction of $1,899,689.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,490,266.50. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Accenture Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of ACN stock opened at $376.86 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $236.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.51, a PEG ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The company’s 50 day moving average is $345.48 and its 200 day moving average is $321.67.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.71 earnings per share. Accenture’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture announced that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.57%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 54.21%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the subject of several analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Mizuho raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. StockNews.com raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $371.18.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Wedmont Private Capital lifted its position in Accenture by 1.9% during the first quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 4,192 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,402,000 after purchasing an additional 78 shares during the period. Marcum Wealth LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 8.3% during the first quarter. Marcum Wealth LLC now owns 1,925 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $667,000 after purchasing an additional 148 shares during the period. Eldred Rock Partners LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 1.0% during the first quarter. Eldred Rock Partners LLC now owns 27,448 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $9,514,000 after purchasing an additional 279 shares during the period. Boston Standard Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 14.9% during the first quarter. Boston Standard Wealth Management LLC now owns 840 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $291,000 after purchasing an additional 109 shares during the period. Finally, RFG Advisory LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 6.8% during the first quarter. RFG Advisory LLC now owns 3,159 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,095,000 after purchasing an additional 201 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.