Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Raised to “Strong-Buy” at Baird R W

Baird R W upgraded shares of Accenture (NYSE:ACN) from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating in a research note published on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other research firms have also issued reports on ACN. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Wolfe Research upgraded Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on Accenture from $429.00 to $396.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. UBS Group boosted their price target on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $388.04.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN stock opened at $326.25 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Accenture has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $398.35. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $362.51 and its two-hundred day moving average is $358.14. The company has a market capitalization of $204.16 billion, a PE ratio of 27.37, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.27 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Accenture will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total transaction of $3,468,574.71. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. This trade represents a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total value of $91,514.72. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 8,915 shares in the company, valued at $3,516,610.90. The trade was a 2.54 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190 in the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of ACN. Members Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $261,000. Lansforsakringar Fondforvaltning AB publ bought a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $72,926,000. Capstone Triton Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 43.0% during the fourth quarter. Capstone Triton Financial Group LLC now owns 2,732 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $961,000 after acquiring an additional 822 shares in the last quarter. TFR Capital LLC. bought a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,792,000. Finally, Park Square Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

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.