Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Receives $351.82 Average PT from Analysts

Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-two research firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and twelve have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $351.82.

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on Accenture in a research report on Monday, June 24th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $335.00 price target on the stock. Wedbush decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $350.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $382.00 to $300.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 26th. Bank of America decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $419.00 to $365.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th. Finally, Barclays dropped their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $350.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 17th.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total value of $1,166,972.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,652,661.95. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 owns 11,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,652,661.95. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total transaction of $2,696,402.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 22,849 shares in the company, valued at $7,564,161.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635 over the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 70.8% during the 4th quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. now owns 6,115 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,146,000 after buying an additional 2,535 shares during the last quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 18.4% during the 4th quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 557,561 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $195,654,000 after purchasing an additional 86,779 shares during the period. Carnegie Capital Asset Management LLC increased its position in Accenture by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Carnegie Capital Asset Management LLC now owns 83,226 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $29,205,000 after purchasing an additional 757 shares in the last quarter. Grove Bank & Trust raised its holdings in Accenture by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Grove Bank & Trust now owns 9,226 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,237,000 after buying an additional 327 shares during the period. Finally, Waldron Private Wealth LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 5.5% during the fourth quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC now owns 7,682 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,695,000 after buying an additional 403 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $326.92 on Monday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $311.12 and its two-hundred day moving average is $327.28. Accenture has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $204.88 billion, a PE ratio of 29.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.66 and a beta of 1.23.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.15 by ($0.02). Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. The business had revenue of $16.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.55 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.19 earnings per share. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Accenture will post 11.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 11th were given a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 11th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.58%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 47.25%.

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.