Weekly Research Analysts’ Ratings Updates for Accenture (ACN)

Several analysts have recently updated their ratings and price targets for Accenture (NYSE: ACN):

• 6/26/2024 – Accenture was downgraded by analysts at Morgan Stanley from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating. They now have a $300.00 price target on the stock, down previously from $382.00.
• 6/24/2024 – Accenture is now covered by analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.. They set a “neutral” rating and a $335.00 price target on the stock.
• 6/21/2024 – Accenture had its “overweight” rating reaffirmed by analysts at Morgan Stanley. They now have a $400.00 price target on the stock.
• 6/21/2024 – Accenture had its price target lowered by analysts at Susquehanna from $360.00 to $350.00. They now have a “neutral” rating on the stock.
• 6/21/2024 – Accenture had its price target lowered by analysts at BMO Capital Markets from $375.00 to $350.00. They now have a “market perform” rating on the stock.
• 6/21/2024 – Accenture had its price target lowered by analysts at TD Cowen from $294.00 to $293.00. They now have a “hold” rating on the stock.
• 6/18/2024 – Accenture had its price target lowered by analysts at Mizuho from $398.00 to $350.00. They now have a “buy” rating on the stock.
• 6/17/2024 – Accenture had its price target lowered by analysts at Barclays PLC from $390.00 to $350.00. They now have an “overweight” rating on the stock.
• 6/17/2024 – Accenture had its price target lowered by analysts at Piper Sandler from $379.00 to $320.00. They now have a “neutral” rating on the stock.
• 6/17/2024 – Accenture had its price target lowered by analysts at Piper Sandler Companies from $379.00 to $320.00. They now have a “neutral” rating on the stock.
• 6/12/2024 – Accenture had its price target lowered by analysts at Wedbush from $400.00 to $350.00. They now have an “outperform” rating on the stock.
• 6/12/2024 – Accenture had its price target lowered by analysts at Stifel Nicolaus from $395.00 to $340.00. They now have a “buy” rating on the stock.
• 6/11/2024 – Accenture had its price target lowered by analysts at TD Cowen from $350.00 to $294.00. They now have a “hold” rating on the stock.
• 6/5/2024 – Accenture had its price target lowered by analysts at Jefferies Financial Group Inc. from $340.00 to $275.00. They now have a “hold” rating on the stock.
• 6/5/2024 – Accenture had its price target lowered by analysts at Bank of America Co. from $419.00 to $365.00. They now have a “buy” rating on the stock.
• 5/24/2024 – Accenture had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by analysts at Guggenheim. They now have a $395.00 price target on the stock.
• 5/16/2024 – Accenture had its price target lowered by analysts at Robert W. Baird from $372.00 to $345.00. They now have a “neutral” rating on the stock.
• 5/15/2024 – Accenture was downgraded by analysts at Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating. They now have a $295.00 price target on the stock, down previously from $409.00.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN traded down $5.46 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $292.60. The stock had a trading volume of 859,191 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,879,522. The firm has a market capitalization of $183.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.79, a PEG ratio of 3.34 and a beta of 1.23. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $299.08 and its 200 day moving average price is $333.95.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.15 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $16.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.55 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.19 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 11th will be issued a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 11th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.76%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 47.25%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at $4,208,606.78. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total value of $1,369,747.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 30,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,705,516.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 20,083 shares of company stock worth $6,302,285 in the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Silver Oak Securities Incorporated acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $136,000. Graham Capital Management L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the third quarter worth $1,036,000. Public Sector Pension Investment Board lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 189.6% in the 3rd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 67,569 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $20,751,000 after buying an additional 142,983 shares during the last quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 165.2% in the 3rd quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 26,524 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $8,146,000 after buying an additional 16,524 shares during the period. Finally, Quantum Financial Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 25.8% during the 3rd quarter. Quantum Financial Advisors LLC now owns 1,722 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $529,000 after buying an additional 353 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.