Morgan Stanley Reiterates Overweight Rating for Accenture (NYSE:ACN)

Accenture (NYSE:ACN)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating reiterated by research analysts at Morgan Stanley in a report released on Friday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $400.00 target price on the information technology services provider’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 29.46% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other brokerages also recently issued reports on ACN. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on Accenture from $375.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Redburn Atlantic lifted their price objective on Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $409.00 to $295.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 15th. TD Cowen decreased their target price on Accenture from $294.00 to $293.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Finally, Citigroup decreased their target price on Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $358.09.

Accenture Stock Up 0.9 %

ACN opened at $308.98 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $207.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.35 and a beta of 1.21. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $301.15 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $337.27. Accenture has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.15 by ($0.02). Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. The firm had revenue of $16.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.55 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.19 EPS. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Accenture will post 12 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total value of $2,657,040.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 17,877 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,937,488.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 28,083 shares of company stock valued at $8,959,325 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Chilton Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 180.0% during the 4th quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. Annapolis Financial Services LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 507.7% during the 1st quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 79 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, Atwood & Palmer Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 214.8% during the 1st quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. now owns 85 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.