Jefferies Financial Group Issues Positive Forecast for Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Stock Price

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) had its price objective raised by Jefferies Financial Group from $250.00 to $270.00 in a research report released on Wednesday,MarketScreener reports. The brokerage currently has a hold rating on the information technology services provider’s stock.

A number of other analysts have also weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company assumed coverage on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $251.00 price target for the company. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on Accenture from $355.00 to $315.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, September 16th. Wolfe Research boosted their target price on Accenture from $285.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. UBS Group decreased their price target on Accenture from $363.00 to $315.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, September 24th. Finally, Susquehanna dropped their price objective on Accenture from $330.00 to $270.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, September 18th. 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 assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $291.96.

Accenture Trading Up 1.1%

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $272.56 on Wednesday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $249.44 and its 200-day simple moving average is $265.79. The company has a market cap 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. Accenture has a 1 year low of $229.40 and a 1 year high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.98 by $0.05. Accenture had a net margin of 11.02% and a return on equity of 26.45%. The business 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 business earned $2.66 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Accenture will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.47, for a total value of $623,675.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,390 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $346,763.30. This trade represents a 64.27% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Manish Sharma sold 6,902 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.01, for a total value of $1,725,569.02. Following the sale, the insider owned 1,860 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $465,018.60. This represents a 78.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 33,319 shares of company stock valued at $8,335,225 over the last ninety days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Sanders Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $2,637,640,000. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Accenture during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $2,216,850,000. Capital International Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 41.1% in the 3rd quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 17,128,134 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,223,839,000 after purchasing an additional 4,984,930 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 63.9% during 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 buying an additional 3,490,569 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Accenture by 2.1% during the 2nd 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 last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.