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

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) has earned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-one research firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and eleven have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $352.33.

ACN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Wedbush cut their price objective on Accenture from $400.00 to $350.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $409.00 to $295.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on shares of Accenture in a research note on Monday, June 24th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $335.00 price objective for the company. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $275.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th. Finally, Bank of America reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $419.00 to $365.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th.

Accenture Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of ACN stock opened at $340.99 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $322.91 and a 200 day simple moving average of $324.78. Accenture has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $213.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.23, a P/E/G ratio of 3.81 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.15 by ($0.02). Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. The business had revenue of $16.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.55 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.19 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 11th were paid a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 47.25%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 22,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,564,161.45. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total transaction of $1,166,972.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 11,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,652,661.95. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 22,849 shares in the company, valued at $7,564,161.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 21,421 shares of company stock valued at $6,912,635 over the last three months. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the 2nd quarter worth $26,000. Annapolis Financial Services LLC grew its position in Accenture by 507.7% during the first quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 79 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $29,000. Finally, Atwood & Palmer Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 214.8% during the 1st quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. now owns 85 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.