Accenture (NYSE:ACN) PT Raised to $415.00

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) had its price target upped by Barclays from $350.00 to $415.00 in a research report report published on Monday, Benzinga reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the information technology services provider’s stock.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Citigroup lifted their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. Morgan Stanley cut Accenture from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $382.00 to $300.00 in a report on Wednesday, June 26th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $275.00 and set a hold rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, June 5th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $371.18.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN stock opened at $361.37 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $226.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.09, a P/E/G ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 1.25. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $335.96 and a 200 day moving average price of $320.60. Accenture has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.71 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Accenture will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 54.21%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total transaction of $1,649,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at $2,964,751.98. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total transaction of $1,166,972.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 11,819 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,652,661.95. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total transaction of $1,649,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,964,751.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp grew its holdings in Accenture by 18.7% during the second quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 172,199 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $52,247,000 after purchasing an additional 27,168 shares during the period. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 11.9% during the 1st quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board now owns 36,750 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $12,393,000 after acquiring an additional 3,900 shares during the last quarter. Platform Technology Partners raised its stake in Accenture by 7.0% in the 4th quarter. Platform Technology Partners now owns 1,996 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $733,000 after acquiring an additional 131 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 13.3% in the 1st quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 183,446 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $63,584,000 after buying an additional 21,516 shares during the last quarter. Finally, M&G Plc acquired a new stake in Accenture during the first quarter worth approximately $19,007,000. 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.