Accenture Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NYSE:ACN)

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Traders acquired 44,309 put options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 449% compared to the typical daily volume of 8,073 put options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Guggenheim started coverage on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $425.00 target price for the company. Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.00.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total value of $1,369,747.96. Following the sale, the general counsel now owns 30,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,705,516.24. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total transaction of $1,369,747.96. Following the sale, the general counsel now owns 30,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,705,516.24. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 851 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.77, for a total transaction of $316,376.27. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 50,737 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,862,494.49. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 39,833 shares of company stock valued at $13,645,871. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Accenture by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 58,434,025 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $17,945,673,000 after purchasing an additional 184,541 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,316,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,089,485,000 after acquiring an additional 565,505 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in Accenture by 7.0% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,034,666 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,388,856,000 after acquiring an additional 720,647 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its holdings in Accenture by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,479,430 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,975,517,000 after acquiring an additional 159,696 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in Accenture by 5.6% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 8,285,864 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,544,672,000 after acquiring an additional 443,004 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of Accenture stock traded down $4.08 on Wednesday, reaching $312.75. 2,214,797 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,382,253. The company has a market capitalization of $209.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 1.19. Accenture has a 52 week low of $261.68 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $353.29 and its two-hundred day moving average is $342.40.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 analysts’ expectations of $15.85 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.69 EPS. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect 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 issued a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.