Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) CEO Julie Spellman Sweet Sells 8,136 Shares

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total transaction of $2,945,801.52. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 12,188 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,412,909.16. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link.

Julie Spellman Sweet also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, October 21st, Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of Accenture stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total value of $3,385,440.00.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN traded up $1.72 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $363.04. 2,642,697 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,722,000. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $350.88 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $323.18. The company has a market capitalization of $227.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.09, a P/E/G ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The company’s revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.71 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 54.21%.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $371.18.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. LVW Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 8.4% during the first quarter. LVW Advisors LLC now owns 1,137 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $394,000 after buying an additional 88 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 13.3% in the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 183,446 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $63,584,000 after purchasing an additional 21,516 shares during the last quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 4.0% in the first quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 1,034 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $358,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Accenture by 8.6% in the first quarter. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,685 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $584,000 after purchasing an additional 134 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Plimoth Trust Co. LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 10.0% during the 1st quarter. Plimoth Trust Co. LLC now owns 4,592 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,592,000 after buying an additional 419 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.