Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Receives $378.91 Average PT from Brokerages

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) has earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-three brokerages that are covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, fifteen have assigned a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $378.23.

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. StockNews.com lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 target price for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Baird R W raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Guggenheim lowered their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Barclays cut their price target on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 24th.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total value of $3,468,574.71. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,677,625.26. This represents a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total value of $242,750.30. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 8,674 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,073,892.12. This trade represents a 7.32 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 21,905 shares of company stock worth $8,181,753. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in Accenture during the third quarter worth approximately $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 62.2% in the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at about $30,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $30,000. Finally, POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 64.2% in the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Trading Up 2.8 %

Shares of ACN stock opened at $312.78 on Tuesday. 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 fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $354.17 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $355.81. The stock has a market cap of $195.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.64 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.77 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Accenture will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.89%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.89%.

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.