Stock Traders Purchase Large Volume of Accenture Put Options (NYSE:ACN)

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) saw unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Stock investors bought 44,309 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 449% compared to the average daily volume of 8,073 put options.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.91, for a total value of $1,974,437.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 161,581 shares in the company, valued at approximately $51,045,053.71. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.91, for a total value of $1,974,437.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 161,581 shares in the company, valued at approximately $51,045,053.71. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 851 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.77, for a total value of $316,376.27. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 50,737 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,862,494.49. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 27,490 shares of company stock worth $9,056,564. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Accenture by 8.2% during the 4th quarter. Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 357 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $125,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares in the last quarter. Brave Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Brave Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $361,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the period. Addison Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 3,181 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,116,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the period. Searle & CO. increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Searle & CO. now owns 803 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $282,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the period. Finally, Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC now owns 1,363 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $478,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on ACN shares. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. StockNews.com upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Susquehanna restated a “neutral” rating and set a $360.00 price objective (down previously from $400.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.00.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN opened at $308.98 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $350.89 and its 200-day moving average is $341.97. The company has a market capitalization of $207.25 billion, a PE ratio of 28.01, a P/E/G ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 1.19. Accenture has a one year low of $261.68 and a one year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced 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. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion for 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%. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.69 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture will post 12.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be given a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 46.78%.

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.