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

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 7,070,000 shares, a decrease of 5.9% from the March 15th total of 7,510,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 2,310,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.1 days. Currently, 1.1% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 3,010 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.80, for a total transaction of $1,119,118.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,193 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,417,957.40. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.77, for a total value of $2,267,312.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 167,831 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $60,884,051.87. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 3,010 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.80, for a total transaction of $1,119,118.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,193 shares in the company, valued at $3,417,957.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 31,000 shares of company stock valued at $11,146,998 over the last three months. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Toth Financial Advisory Corp raised its position in shares of Accenture by 9.8% in the 1st quarter. Toth Financial Advisory Corp now owns 6,477 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,245,000 after buying an additional 580 shares in the last quarter. Trust Co. of Virginia VA increased its position in Accenture by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Trust Co. of Virginia VA now owns 27,025 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $9,367,000 after purchasing an additional 103 shares in the last quarter. Opinicus Capital Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture during the 1st quarter worth approximately $319,000. Avity Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Accenture by 6.8% during the 1st quarter. Avity Investment Management Inc. now owns 107,822 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $37,372,000 after purchasing an additional 6,884 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Webster Bank N. A. increased its position in Accenture by 8.6% during the 1st quarter. Webster Bank N. A. now owns 9,155 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,173,000 after purchasing an additional 724 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the topic of several analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Susquehanna reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $360.00 target price (down from $400.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Citigroup cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen 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 price target of $387.00.

Accenture Price Performance

Accenture stock traded up $0.67 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $313.94. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,900,382 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,239,222. Accenture has a 1-year low of $261.68 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $358.39 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $342.14. The company has a market cap of $210.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.46, a PEG ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 1.19.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. The business had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.85 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.69 EPS. The business’s revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture will post 12.09 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be given a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.64%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 46.78%.

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.