Accenture (NYSE:ACN) PT Raised to $389.00 at Royal Bank of Canada

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) had its price objective lifted by investment analysts at Royal Bank of Canada from $377.00 to $389.00 in a research note issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “outperform” rating on the information technology services provider’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 11.24% from the stock’s current price.

Other equities analysts have also issued reports about the company. UBS Group raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, July 19th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on Accenture from $395.00 to $340.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on Accenture from $340.00 to $275.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, September 20th. Nine research 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 currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $364.64.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $349.70 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $333.92 and its 200-day simple moving average is $320.81. The firm has a market cap of $219.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.02, a PEG ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51.

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

Accenture announced that its board has approved a share buyback 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 an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total value of $1,649,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at $2,964,751.98. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total transaction of $927,660.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 40,070 shares in the company, valued at $12,390,445.40. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total value of $1,649,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,964,751.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 21,421 shares of company stock valued at $6,912,635 over the last ninety days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the 1st quarter worth about $820,912,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 100.0% in 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 in the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC grew its position in Accenture by 44.7% during 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 acquiring an additional 837,677 shares during the last quarter. Winslow Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $288,168,000. Finally, Generation Investment Management LLP bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $286,220,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

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.