Brokerages Set Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Price Target at $368.23

Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) have received an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-two brokerages that are covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $368.23.

ACN has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Monday, September 30th. UBS Group raised their price objective on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN stock opened at $358.66 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $356.42 and its 200-day simple moving average is $329.23. Accenture has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $224.22 billion, a PE ratio of 31.38, a P/E/G ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.71 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture announced that its board has initiated a stock repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a $1.48 dividend. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.65%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 51.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total transaction of $170,948.50. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at $3,649,265.25. The trade was a 4.47 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in ACN. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 30.6% in the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 68,695 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $23,810,000 after buying an additional 16,093 shares during the period. Ossiam grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 3.0% during the first quarter. Ossiam now owns 15,203 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $5,270,000 after purchasing an additional 443 shares during the last quarter. Crewe Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 1st quarter worth approximately $145,000. Vident Advisory LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 8.2% during the 1st quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 11,563 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,009,000 after buying an additional 874 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Delap Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the first quarter worth $274,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.