Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Price Target Lowered to $270.00 at Susquehanna

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) had its target price trimmed by Susquehanna from $330.00 to $270.00 in a report issued on Thursday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The firm currently has a neutral rating on the information technology services provider’s stock.

Other research analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Evercore ISI started coverage on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $330.00 price target on the stock. Rothschild Redb downgraded Accenture from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Accenture from $334.00 to $302.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 20th. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on Accenture from $372.00 to $350.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Guggenheim lowered their target price on Accenture from $335.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $335.13.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $239.59 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $150.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.08, a PEG ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 1.29. Accenture has a twelve month low of $235.83 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $258.54 and a 200 day simple moving average of $290.52. 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 issued 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. The company had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.55% and a net margin of 11.61%.During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.13 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Accenture will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total transaction of $141,170.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,283 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $644,582.22. This trade represents a 17.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $57,315.02. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 5,249 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,482,002.66. This trade represents a 3.72% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 2,954 shares of company stock valued at $834,280 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Accenture by 2.1% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 65,129,782 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $19,466,641,000 after purchasing an additional 1,315,548 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its stake in Accenture by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 28,016,605 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $8,373,925,000 after buying an additional 326,979 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,042,843 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,182,331,000 after acquiring an additional 147,931 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 0.6% during the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 8,998,826 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,689,659,000 after acquiring an additional 56,108 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in shares of Accenture by 63.9% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,953,621 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,793,889,000 after purchasing an additional 3,490,569 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

About Accenture

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.