Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Short Interest Down 9.5% in September

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) saw a large drop in short interest in the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 6,260,000 shares, a drop of 9.5% from the August 31st total of 6,920,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 2,730,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.3 days. Currently, 1.0% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN traded down $1.50 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $351.98. The stock had a trading volume of 1,811,018 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,775,479. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $334.35 and its 200 day moving average is $320.23. The stock has a market capitalization of $220.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.36, a PEG ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. Accenture’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.71 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Accenture will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.68%. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 47.25%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total transaction of $927,660.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 40,070 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,390,445.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total value of $927,660.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 40,070 shares in the company, valued at $12,390,445.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total value of $1,166,972.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 11,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,652,661.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 21,421 shares of company stock valued at $6,912,635. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Accenture by 8.2% in the 4th quarter. Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 357 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $125,000 after acquiring an additional 27 shares during the period. Kolinsky Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Kolinsky Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,888 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,013,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the period. Walled Lake Planning & Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Walled Lake Planning & Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,740 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,120,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. West Paces Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Accenture by 10.2% during the 1st quarter. West Paces Advisors Inc. now owns 346 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $120,000 after buying an additional 32 shares during the period. Finally, Tsfg LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 31.1% in the 2nd quarter. Tsfg LLC now owns 135 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $41,000 after buying an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on ACN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday. Bank of America raised their target price on Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Piper Sandler upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $371.18.

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.