Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) COO Sells $2,657,040.00 in Stock

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total value of $2,657,040.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,937,488.01. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN opened at $340.96 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $369.38 and a 200-day moving average of $340.37. The company has a market cap of $213.89 billion, a PE ratio of 30.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 1.20. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $261.68 and a 52-week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.69 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.1 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be issued a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.51%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 46.78%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on ACN. BNP Paribas raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 target price on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 17th. TD Cowen cut their price objective on Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. StockNews.com downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.00.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $4,341,000. Fairman Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $29,705,000. Cooksen Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $36,000. Grayhawk Investment Strategies Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $35,000. Finally, M3 Advisory Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $230,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Company Profile

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.