Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Stock Rating Upgraded by StockNews.com

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) was upgraded by equities research analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued on Friday.

Other equities research analysts have also issued reports about the stock. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. TD Cowen reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. BNP Paribas raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 target price on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 17th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.00.

Accenture Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $316.88 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $212.54 billion, a PE ratio of 28.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 1.19. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $355.21 and its 200 day moving average is $342.08. Accenture has a 1 year low of $261.68 and a 1 year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. The firm’s revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.69 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Accenture will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 4,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $316.00, for a total transaction of $1,422,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 42,781 shares in the company, valued at $13,518,796. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 3,010 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.80, for a total transaction of $1,119,118.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,193 shares in the company, valued at $3,417,957.40. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 4,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.00, for a total transaction of $1,422,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 42,781 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,518,796. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 35,500 shares of company stock worth $12,276,123. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of ACN. United Bank lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 6.3% in the first quarter. United Bank now owns 2,969 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,001,000 after buying an additional 176 shares in the last quarter. Weitz Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.3% in the first quarter. Weitz Investment Management Inc. now owns 89,400 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $30,148,000 after buying an additional 1,168 shares in the last quarter. Fund Management at Engine No. 1 LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the first quarter worth about $1,805,000. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.6% in the first quarter. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. now owns 7,292 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,459,000 after buying an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 104.8% in the first quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 441,451 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $148,871,000 after buying an additional 225,943 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.