Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Receives $387.00 Consensus PT from Analysts

Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty brokerages that are covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 12 month target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $387.00.

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on Accenture from $385.00 to $375.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Redburn Atlantic boosted their price objective on Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. StockNews.com lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total transaction of $2,657,040.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,937,488.01. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 851 shares of the company’s 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 50,737 shares in the company, valued at $18,862,494.49. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total value of $2,657,040.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at $5,937,488.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 31,000 shares of company stock worth $11,146,998 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Chilton Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 180.0% in the fourth quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $27,000. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL acquired a new position in Accenture during the first quarter worth $28,000. Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $29,000. Finally, Atwood & Palmer Inc. lifted its stake in Accenture by 214.8% during the first quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. now owns 85 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $313.36 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $359.41 and a two-hundred day moving average of $342.09. Accenture has a one year low of $261.68 and a one year high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $210.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.41, a P/E/G ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 1.19.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.69 EPS. Analysts predict that Accenture will post 12.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

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 issued a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.65%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 46.78%.

Accenture Company Profile

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.