Evercore ISI Begins Coverage on Accenture (NYSE:ACN)

Investment analysts at Evercore ISI started coverage on shares of Accenture (NYSE:ACN) in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage set an “outperform” rating and a $330.00 price target on the information technology services provider’s stock. Evercore ISI’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 16.87% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other brokerages have also weighed in on ACN. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $349.00 to $353.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, June 16th. Guggenheim cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $365.43.

Accenture Trading Down 0.1%

ACN opened at $282.37 on Thursday. Accenture has a fifty-two week low of $273.19 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $176.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.48, a PEG ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 1.29. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $306.32 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $324.73.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.13 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Accenture will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total transaction of $812,500.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 15,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,161,650. This trade represents a 13.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total value of $635,794.95. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 8,109 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,290,387.05. The trade was a 21.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 5,454 shares of company stock valued at $1,646,780. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ACN. Lipe & Dalton lifted its position in Accenture by 2,087.4% during the first quarter. Lipe & Dalton now owns 5,031 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,570,000 after buying an additional 4,801 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in Accenture by 16.8% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,325,526,000 after buying an additional 1,770,024 shares in the last quarter. Alteri Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $321,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC raised its position in Accenture by 47.6% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,446 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $861,000 after purchasing an additional 789 shares during the period. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC raised its position in Accenture by 62.2% in the first quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 905 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $282,000 after purchasing an additional 347 shares during the period. 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.