Guggenheim Boosts Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Price Target to $395.00

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) had its price target upped by Guggenheim from $380.00 to $395.00 in a report released on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the information technology services provider’s stock.

ACN has been the topic of a number of other reports. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Friday. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Friday. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $395.00 to $340.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised shares of Accenture from a neutral rating to an overweight rating and upped their price target for the stock from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research report on Thursday. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $364.64.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN opened at $349.70 on Friday. Accenture has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $333.92 and its 200 day simple moving average is $320.40. The stock has a market capitalization of $219.15 billion, a PE ratio of 32.02, a P/E/G ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 1.24.

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s payout ratio is 47.25%.

Accenture declared that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total value of $1,166,972.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,652,661.95. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total transaction of $472,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 38,570 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,149,550. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,819 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,652,661.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 21,421 shares of company stock valued at $6,912,635 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Swedbank AB bought a new stake in Accenture in the first quarter valued at $820,912,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main boosted its stake in Accenture by 100.0% during the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 1,751,531 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $614,615,000 after purchasing an additional 875,723 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC grew its position in Accenture by 44.7% in the 2nd quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,709,989 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $822,238,000 after purchasing an additional 837,677 shares during the last quarter. Winslow Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $288,168,000. Finally, Generation Investment Management LLP acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth approximately $286,220,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.