Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) finished Friday with an addition of $6.34 to close at $307.11, an upside of 2.11 percent. An average of 2,866,420 shares of common stock have been traded in the last five days. There was a fall of -$8.98 in the past week, and it reached a new high 22 times over the past 12 months. The last 20 days have seen an average of 2,167,155 shares traded, while the 50-day average volume stands at 1,875,756.
ACN stock has decreased by -4.99% in the last month. The company shares reached their 1-month lowest point of $294.49 on 09/28/23. With the stock rallying to its 52-week high on 09/08/23, shares of the company touched a low of $242.80 and a high of $330.43 in 52 weeks. It has reached a new high 14 times so far this year and achieved 15.09% or $40.27 in price. In spite of this, the price is down -7.06% from the 52-week high.
Insider Transactions
ACN stock investors should be aware that Accenture plc (ACN) stock had its last reported insider trading activity 53 days ago on Aug 08. In this transaction, the insider spent $934,548. General Counsel/Corp Secretary, Unruch Joel, disposed of 7,000 shares at a price of $320.60 on Jul 27. The insider now owns more than $2,244,229 worth of shares. Prior to that, Chief Leadership & HR Officer Shook Ellyn went on to Sale 5,250 shares at $315.00 each on Jul 21. An amount of $1,653,746 was transacted.
Valuation Metrics
Accenture plc (ACN) has a trailing price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 28.51. The stock’s beta is 1.22. Other valuation ratios to consider include the trailing price-to-sales (P/S) ratio at 3.18, the price-to-book (PB) ratio at 7.52, and the price-to-cash flow ratio at 22.68.
The company has a payout ratio of 41.59%. The company’s most recent quarterly dividend payment was $1.29 a share, representing a up of 15.18% from $1.12 last year.
Financial Health
The quick ratio of Accenture plc for the three months ended August 30 was 1.37, and the current ratio was 1.30, indicating that the company is able to meet its debt obligations. Further, the company has a long term debt to equity ratio of 0.09 and a total debt to equity ratio of 0.12 for the quarter ending August 30. Its gross profit as reported stood at $19.7 billion compared to revenue of $61.59 billion.
Earnings Surprise
For the three-month period that ended August 30, Accenture plc had $43.87 million in total debt. In the quarter under review, the net income was up than the previous quarter. The company posted a net income of $2.01 billion in the quarter, while revenues of $1.52 billion were grew 11.14%. The analyst consensus anticipated Accenture plc’s latest quarter earnings to come in at $2.66 per share, but it turned out to be $2.71, a 1.90% surprise. For the quarter, EBITDA amounted to $2.96 billion. Shareholders own equity worth $664.65 million.
Technical Picture
From a technical analysis perspective, let’s take a brief look at Accenture plc (ACN) price momentum. RSI 9-day as of the close on 29 September was 40.93%, suggesting the stock is Neutral, with historical volatility in this time frame at 30.29%.
As of today, ACN’s price is $309.97 -2.84% or -$8.98 from its 5-day moving average. ACN is currently trading -5.15% lower than its 20-day SMA and +15.97% higher than its 100-day SMA. However, the stock’s current price level is -1.72% below the SMA50 and +5.05% above the SMA200.
The stochastic %K and %D were 29.47% and 23.03%, respectively, and the average true range (ATR) was 7.34. With the 14-day stochastic at 43.77% and the average true range at 6.65, the RSI (14) stands at 42.58%. The stock has reached -5.03 on the 9-day MACD Oscillator while the 14-day reading was at -5.86.
Analyst Ratings
TD Cowen downgraded Accenture plc (NYSE: ACN) to a a Market perform rating in its most recent analyst report. Previously, the stock was rated as an Outperform. The consensus rating for Accenture plc (ACN) among analysts is Overweight. According to current brokerage recommendations, 0 brokerage firms advise that investors sell ACN, while 10 suggest investors hold. There are 1 analyst who rate the stock as underweight. The stock is rated overweight by 1 analysts, while 15 others rate it as a “buy”.
What is ACN’s price target for the next 12 months?
Analysts predict a range of price targets between $280.00 and $390.00, with a median target of $341.00. Taking a look at these predictions, the average price target given by analysts for Accenture plc (ACN) stock is $338.52.
