Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Sees Large Growth in Short Interest

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in the month of November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 6,350,000 shares, a growth of 8.4% from the November 15th total of 5,860,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 2,470,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.6 days. Currently, 1.0% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The shares were 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 directly owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total transaction of $3,385,440.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 20,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. This represents a 30.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. 1ST Source Bank lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 14.3% in the third quarter. 1ST Source Bank now owns 1,506 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $532,000 after buying an additional 188 shares during the last quarter. Copley Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth $473,000. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas bought a new stake in Accenture during the third quarter valued at about $8,920,000. Castellan Group grew its position in shares of Accenture by 4.1% in the third quarter. Castellan Group now owns 8,165 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,886,000 after purchasing an additional 323 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB grew its position in shares of Accenture by 2.5% in the third quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 41,175 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $14,555,000 after purchasing an additional 1,015 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Citigroup upped their price target 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. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Piper Sandler Companies reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $374.50.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN traded up $0.24 on Tuesday, reaching $357.30. 2,386,903 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,674,300. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $360.55 and its 200-day moving average price is $335.71. Accenture has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The company has a market cap of $223.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.26, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 in the previous year, the firm posted $2.71 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture will post 12.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 51.79%.

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

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.