Photo by Buffik on PixabayA consulting giant showered its owners with cash, yet the stock fell far behind the market. Over the last five years, IT consulting firm Accenture (ACN) handed its shareholders $39 billion in cash. That figure, equal to about 40% of the company's entire market value today, is nearly seven times the payout of the median S&P 500 company. Of the $39 billion five-year total, $16 billion arrived as dividends, and another $23 billion was used for share repurchases. The gap is huge and highlights the central trade-off: cash returned to shareholders is cash not reinvested in growth.