Accenture (NYSE:ACN) PT Raised to $395.00

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) had its target price raised by equities researchers at Guggenheim from $380.00 to $395.00 in a note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “buy” rating on the information technology services provider’s stock. Guggenheim’s price objective points to a potential upside of 12.95% from the company’s current price.

Several other analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Piper Sandler upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the company from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research note on Thursday. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday. Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $364.64.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $349.70 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization 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 one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. The business’s fifty day moving average is $333.92 and its 200-day moving average is $320.81.

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

Accenture announced that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total transaction of $1,649,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total value of $2,696,402.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 22,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,564,161.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 59,718,732 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $20,699,110,000 after purchasing an additional 635,349 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its position in shares of Accenture by 1.2% in the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 10,912,962 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,311,102,000 after buying an additional 131,544 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.0% in the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,652,537 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,999,056,000 after buying an additional 173,107 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its stake in Accenture by 1.4% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,887,266 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,786,256,000 after acquiring an additional 80,514 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 4.1% in the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 3,797,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,316,086,000 after acquiring an additional 148,738 shares during the last quarter. 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.