Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Price Target Raised to $390.00

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) had its price objective lifted by BMO Capital Markets from $380.00 to $390.00 in a research report report published on Friday, Benzinga reports. BMO Capital Markets currently has a market perform rating on the information technology services provider’s stock.

Several other research analysts have also issued reports on ACN. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. Mizuho raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Piper Sandler Companies reaffirmed a neutral rating and issued a $329.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Susquehanna lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered shares of Accenture from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $382.00 to $300.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 26th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $364.64.

Accenture Trading Down 1.7 %

ACN opened at $349.70 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $219.15 billion, a PE 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. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $333.92 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $320.40.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The firm 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 company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.71 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Accenture will post 11.95 EPS for the current year.

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.69%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.25%.

Insider Activity

In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total value of $2,696,402.25. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 22,849 shares in the company, valued at $7,564,161.45. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total value of $2,696,402.25. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 22,849 shares in the company, valued at $7,564,161.45. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total transaction of $927,660.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 40,070 shares in the company, valued at $12,390,445.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Swedbank AB bought a new position in Accenture during the first quarter worth $820,912,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main boosted its position in Accenture by 100.0% during the fourth 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 worth $614,615,000 after purchasing an additional 875,723 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 44.7% during the second 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 period. Winslow Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $288,168,000. Finally, Generation Investment Management LLP bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at about $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.