Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty ratings firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and thirteen have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $387.00.

Several analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. BNP Paribas raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 price target for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 17th. Guggenheim started coverage on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $425.00 price objective for the company. Susquehanna reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $360.00 target price (down previously from $400.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Finally, Redburn Atlantic raised their target price on Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value of $1,536,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Manish Sharma sold 1,486 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $370.39, for a total transaction of $550,399.54. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 4,503 shares in the company, valued at $1,667,866.17. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 31,639 shares of company stock valued at $10,276,287 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,061,490,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main raised its position in Accenture by 100.0% in 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 acquiring an additional 875,723 shares during the period. Winslow Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth $288,168,000. Generation Investment Management LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth $286,220,000. Finally, Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado bought a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth $263,421,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $303.69 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $344.42 and a 200-day moving average price of $341.74. The company has a market cap of $203.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 1.21. Accenture has a 12 month low of $261.68 and a 12 month high of $387.51.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be paid a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.70%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 46.78%.

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.