Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Short Interest Down 5.9% in March

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on ACN. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Accenture from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Susquehanna reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $360.00 price objective (down previously from $400.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. BNP Paribas upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 price target for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 17th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.00.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN traded up $0.67 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $313.94. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,874,922 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,362,788. The firm has a market capitalization of $210.57 billion, a PE ratio of 28.41, a P/E/G ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 1.19. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $359.41 and a two-hundred day moving average of $342.09. Accenture has a 52 week low of $261.68 and a 52 week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.69 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Accenture will post 12.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of Accenture 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 sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,937,488.01. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In related news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.77, for a total transaction of $2,267,312.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 167,831 shares in the company, valued at $60,884,051.87. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of Accenture 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 sale, the chief operating officer now owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at $5,937,488.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 31,000 shares of company stock worth $11,146,998 in the last ninety days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Opinicus Capital Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the first quarter worth about $319,000. Avity Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Accenture by 6.8% during the first quarter. Avity Investment Management Inc. now owns 107,822 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $37,372,000 after purchasing an additional 6,884 shares during the period. Webster Bank N. A. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 8.6% in 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 acquiring an additional 724 shares during the last quarter. KRS Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 12.6% during the 1st quarter. KRS Capital Management LLC now owns 1,876 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $650,000 after purchasing an additional 210 shares during the period. Finally, Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 12.1% during the 1st quarter. Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. now owns 1,756 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $609,000 after purchasing an additional 189 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.