Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Shares Gap Down - What's Next?

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) gapped down before the market opened on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $361.38, but opened at $348.80. Accenture shares last traded at $350.71, with a volume of 671,683 shares.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Piper Sandler Companies reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a $329.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Robert W. Baird restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday. Finally, BNP Paribas cut 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. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $368.23.

Accenture Stock Down 3.4 %

The business's fifty day simple moving average is $358.68 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $331.17. The company has a market cap of $218.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.58, a PEG ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.71 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.70%. This is a boost from Accenture's previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. Accenture's payout ratio is presently 51.79%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally a sign that the company's board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the business'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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,650 shares in the company, valued at $2,102,817. The trade was a 10.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total value of $3,385,440.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at $7,645,075.84. This represents a 30.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the 2nd quarter worth $26,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth about $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 607.1% during the 3rd quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the third quarter worth about $39,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

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.

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