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

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) was the target of a large decrease in short interest in 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. Approximately 1.1% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 2,310,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.1 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on ACN. UBS Group increased their price target on Accenture from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Bank of America increased their price target on Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Citigroup decreased their price target on Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Piper Sandler increased their price target on Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, BNP Paribas upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 price target on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 17th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total value of $2,657,040.00. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 available at the SEC website. In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 3,010 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 26th. The stock was 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 approximately $3,417,957.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 17,877 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,937,488.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 31,000 shares of company stock worth $11,146,998 in the last three months. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. United Bank grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 6.3% during the first quarter. United Bank now owns 2,969 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,001,000 after acquiring an additional 176 shares during the last quarter. Weitz Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.3% during the first quarter. Weitz Investment Management Inc. now owns 89,400 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $30,148,000 after acquiring an additional 1,168 shares during the last quarter. Fund Management at Engine No. 1 LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the first quarter worth about $1,805,000. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.6% during the first quarter. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. now owns 7,292 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,459,000 after acquiring an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 104.8% during the first quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 441,451 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $148,871,000 after acquiring an additional 225,943 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of ACN traded up $0.67 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $313.94. 2,900,382 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,239,222. Accenture has a 52 week low of $261.68 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The company’s 50 day moving average is $358.39 and its two-hundred day moving average is $342.14. The company has a market capitalization of $210.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.46, a PEG ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 1.19.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.85 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.69 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Accenture will post 12.09 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

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