Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Given New $265.00 Price Target at Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) had its price objective increased by Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft from $235.00 to $265.00 in a research report released on Wednesday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. They currently have a hold rating on the information technology services provider’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also issued reports on ACN. Dbs Bank raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 27th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, September 30th. Guggenheim cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $305.00 to $285.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 26th. Rothschild & Co Redburn increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $250.00 to $255.00 in a report on Friday, September 19th. Finally, TD Cowen dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $313.00 to $295.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, September 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $291.96.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $272.56 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $179.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.43, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a current ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $249.44 and a two-hundred day moving average of $265.79. Accenture has a twelve month low of $229.40 and a twelve month high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.98 by $0.05. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.45% and a net margin of 11.02%.The company had revenue of $17.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.34 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.66 earnings per share. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Accenture will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 10th were issued a dividend of $1.63 per share. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 10th. This represents a $6.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.4%. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 53.66%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, insider Manish Sharma sold 6,902 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.01, for a total value of $1,725,569.02. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 1,860 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $465,018.60. The trade was a 78.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 5,917 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $246.62, for a total transaction of $1,459,250.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 8,599 shares in the company, valued at $2,120,685.38. This trade represents a 40.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 33,319 shares of company stock worth $8,335,225 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 36.2% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 18,438 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $6,486,000 after buying an additional 4,905 shares during the last quarter. Prudential PLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 4.0% in the first quarter. Prudential PLC now owns 46,620 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $14,547,000 after purchasing an additional 1,784 shares in the last quarter. National Pension Service grew its stake in Accenture by 6.0% during the first quarter. National Pension Service now owns 1,366,038 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $426,258,000 after acquiring an additional 77,433 shares in the last quarter. Triglav Skladi D.O.O. bought a new stake in Accenture during the first quarter valued at $15,649,000. Finally, Financial Network Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 35.5% in the first quarter. Financial Network Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 653 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $204,000 after purchasing an additional 171 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.