Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Earns Hold Rating from Analysts at Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft

Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft assumed coverage on shares of Accenture (NYSE:ACN) in a research report sent to investors on Thursday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage issued a hold rating and a $290.00 price target on the information technology services provider’s stock.

Several other research firms have also recently issued reports on ACN. Mizuho set a $348.00 target price on Accenture and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Piper Sandler cut their price target on Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Accenture from $349.00 to $353.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, June 16th. Argus set a $370.00 price target on Accenture in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $365.43.

Accenture Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of ACN opened at $282.37 on Thursday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $306.32 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $324.54. Accenture has a twelve month low of $273.19 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $176.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.48, a PEG ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a quick ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The business had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.26 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $3.13 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Accenture will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.10%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.13%.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total transaction of $812,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 15,882 shares in the company, valued at $5,161,650. The trade was a 13.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $141,170.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,283 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $644,582.22. This represents a 17.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 5,454 shares of company stock valued at $1,646,780 over the last three months. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Visionary Wealth Advisors grew its position in shares of Accenture by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Visionary Wealth Advisors now owns 778 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $274,000 after purchasing an additional 26 shares in the last quarter. Vivaldi Capital Management LP increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Vivaldi Capital Management LP now owns 782 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $292,000 after buying an additional 27 shares during the period. Nemes Rush Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 7.5% in the 4th quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 418 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $147,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the period. Tradition Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,981 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,863,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sentinus LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Sentinus LLC now owns 763 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $268,000 after purchasing an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.