Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.78, for a total transaction of $1,723,205.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 20,526 shares of the company's stock, valued at $7,446,422.28. The trade was a 18.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link.
NYSE ACN traded up $10.58 during trading on Monday, reaching $372.99. 3,855,044 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,727,837. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $357.37 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $348.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The firm has a market cap of $233.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 1.24.
Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.27 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.
The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.59%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is presently 49.66%.
Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Adero Partners LLC grew its position in Accenture by 10.3% during the 4th quarter. Adero Partners LLC now owns 1,341 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $472,000 after purchasing an additional 125 shares during the last quarter. YANKCOM Partnership purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $353,000. Bleakley Financial Group LLC grew its position in Accenture by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 18,264 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $6,425,000 after purchasing an additional 346 shares during the last quarter. NovaPoint Capital LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. NovaPoint Capital LLC now owns 13,466 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $4,737,000 after acquiring an additional 363 shares during the period. Finally, Tyche Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 95.2% during the 4th quarter. Tyche Wealth Partners LLC now owns 5,529 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,945,000 after acquiring an additional 2,696 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.
Several equities analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. BNP Paribas cut shares of Accenture from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $375.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com raised shares of Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Accenture from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their price objective for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their price objective for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $383.74.
Get Our Latest Stock Report on 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.
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