Citigroup Increases Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Price Target to $405.00

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) had its price objective hoisted by Citigroup from $350.00 to $405.00 in a report issued on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. Citigroup currently has a buy rating on the information technology services provider’s stock.

Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on ACN. Morgan Stanley cut shares of Accenture from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating and lowered their price target for the company from $382.00 to $300.00 in a report on Wednesday, June 26th. Mizuho lowered their target price on Accenture from $398.00 to $350.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Accenture from $330.00 to $376.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Friday, September 6th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on Accenture from $340.00 to $275.00 and set a hold rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, June 5th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $375.00 to $350.00 and set a market perform rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 21st. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $354.91.

Accenture Stock Down 4.9 %

ACN opened at $336.93 on Tuesday. Accenture has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The business has a 50 day moving average of $329.94 and a 200-day moving average of $322.59. The stock has a market cap of $211.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.85, a PEG ratio of 3.82 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.15 by ($0.02). Accenture had a net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. The business had revenue of $16.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.55 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.19 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Accenture will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 11th were paid a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 11th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.53%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 47.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total transaction of $472,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 38,570 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,149,550. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total transaction of $927,660.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 40,070 shares in the company, valued at $12,390,445.40. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total value of $472,500.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,570 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,149,550. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635 in the last ninety days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Annapolis Financial Services LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 507.7% in the 1st quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 79 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $29,000. Atwood & Palmer Inc. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 214.8% in the first quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. now owns 85 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the second quarter valued at $26,000. Finally, Grayhawk Investment Strategies Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth about $35,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.