Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Price Target Raised to $305.00 at Guggenheim

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) had its price target increased by Guggenheim from $285.00 to $305.00 in a research note released on Monday,MarketScreener reports. They currently have a buy rating on the information technology services provider’s stock.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. TD Cowen dropped their price objective on Accenture from $313.00 to $295.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $325.00 to $271.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, September 9th. Citigroup raised shares of Accenture to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. Mizuho dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $348.00 to $309.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, September 29th. Finally, Evercore ISI set a $280.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, September 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $294.04.

Accenture Stock Up 1.3%

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $275.02 on Monday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $251.01 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $264.55. Accenture has a 52-week low of $229.40 and a 52-week high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a current ratio of 1.42. The stock has a market capitalization of $181.10 billion, a PE ratio of 22.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 1.26.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly 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. The company had revenue of $17.60 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.34 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.02% and a return on equity of 26.45%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.66 earnings per share. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Accenture will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 10th were given a $1.63 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 10th. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.4%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 53.66%.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.47, for a total value of $623,675.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 1,390 shares in the company, valued at $346,763.30. This represents a 64.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 5,917 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $246.62, for a total value of $1,459,250.54. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 8,599 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,120,685.38. The trade was a 40.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 33,319 shares of company stock valued at $8,335,225 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Investors Research Corp raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 73.8% in the third quarter. Investors Research Corp now owns 106 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the period. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Accenture by 132.6% during the 3rd quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 107 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares during the last quarter. Triumph Capital Management purchased a new stake in Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth about $26,000. Davis Capital Management bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Finally, Elevation Wealth Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 146.0% in the third quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC now owns 123 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 73 shares during the period. 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.