Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Shares Gap Down – Here’s What Happened

Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) gapped down prior to trading on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $273.74, but opened at $265.00. Accenture shares last traded at $269.0640, with a volume of 1,037,428 shares traded.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently commented on the stock. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $372.00 to $285.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 26th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $325.00 to $270.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 26th. TD Cowen dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $313.00 to $295.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 26th. BNP Paribas Exane reduced their price objective on Accenture from $300.00 to $255.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, September 24th. Finally, Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $294.04.

Accenture Trading Down 1.9%

The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $251.83 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $264.30. The company has a market capitalization of $176.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.42 and a quick ratio of 1.42.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 18th. The information technology services provider reported $3.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.73 by $0.21. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.45% and a net margin of 11.02%.The company had revenue of $18.74 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $18.51 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.59 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.520-13.900 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 10th were given a $1.63 dividend. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. This represents a $6.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 53.66%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.47, for a total transaction of $623,675.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,390 shares in the company, valued at $346,763.30. This represents a 64.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Manish Sharma sold 6,902 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.01, for a total value of $1,725,569.02. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 1,860 shares in the company, valued at $465,018.60. The trade was a 78.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last three months, insiders sold 33,319 shares of company stock valued at $8,335,225. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Investors Research Corp boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 73.8% in the third quarter. Investors Research Corp now owns 106 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the period. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. increased its position in Accenture by 132.6% during the third quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 107 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 61 shares during the period. Triumph Capital Management acquired a new position in Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at $26,000. Davis Capital Management bought a new stake in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at $28,000. Finally, Elevation Wealth Partners LLC grew its position in Accenture by 146.0% in the 3rd quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC now owns 123 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

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.