Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Sees Large Volume Increase – Should You Buy?

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) shares saw unusually-strong trading volume on Tuesday . Approximately 1,053,492 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 44% from the previous session’s volume of 1,868,986 shares.The stock last traded at $362.10 and had previously closed at $351.33.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on ACN. Citigroup upped their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, TD Cowen upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $385.04.

Accenture Price Performance

The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $357.48 and a 200 day simple moving average of $343.37. The company has a market capitalization of $223.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.30, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.27 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.74 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.65%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 49.66%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $369.97, for a total transaction of $1,757,357.50. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 22,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,500,430.72. This trade represents a 17.13 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total transaction of $250,477.14. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,102,817. The trade was a 10.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 36,673 shares of company stock valued at $13,507,099. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the third quarter worth approximately $25,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC purchased a new position in Accenture during the 2nd quarter worth $28,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the third quarter valued at about $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 607.1% during the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares during the period. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter valued at about $39,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.