Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Price Target Lowered to $340.00 at Morgan Stanley

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) had its price target decreased by Morgan Stanley from $372.00 to $340.00 in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. Morgan Stanley currently has an equal weight rating on the information technology services provider’s stock.

Other analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $395.00 price objective (up from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Robert W. Baird upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 target price on the stock in a report on Monday, March 17th. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 24th. Finally, Guggenheim reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $382.15.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $318.02 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The stock has a market cap of $199.19 billion, a PE ratio of 26.68, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33. Accenture has a fifty-two week low of $275.01 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $304.89 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $336.13.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.77 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Accenture will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.86%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 48.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total value of $1,003,982.14. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 17,237 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,857,041.86. This represents a 17.13% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in ACN. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 62.2% during the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth $30,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $31,000. Finally, Promus Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $34,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.