Weekly Analysts’ Ratings Changes for Accenture (ACN)

Several analysts have recently updated their ratings and price targets for Accenture (NYSE: ACN):

• 9/30/2024 – Accenture had its price target raised by analysts at Barclays PLC from $350.00 to $415.00. They now have an “overweight” rating on the stock.
• 9/30/2024 – Accenture was upgraded by analysts at TD Cowen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating. They now have a $400.00 price target on the stock, up previously from $321.00.
• 9/27/2024 – Accenture had its price target raised by analysts at Royal Bank of Canada from $377.00 to $389.00. They now have an “outperform” rating on the stock.
• 9/27/2024 – Accenture had its price target raised by analysts at Robert W. Baird from $350.00 to $370.00. They now have a “neutral” rating on the stock.
• 9/27/2024 – Accenture had its price target raised by analysts at Susquehanna from $350.00 to $360.00. They now have a “neutral” rating on the stock.
• 9/27/2024 – Accenture had its price target raised by analysts at BMO Capital Markets from $380.00 to $390.00. They now have a “market perform” rating on the stock.
• 9/27/2024 – Accenture was upgraded by analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating.
• 9/27/2024 – Accenture had its price target raised by analysts at UBS Group AG from $400.00 to $415.00. They now have a “buy” rating on the stock.
• 9/27/2024 – Accenture had its price target raised by analysts at Guggenheim from $380.00 to $395.00. They now have a “buy” rating on the stock.
• 9/27/2024 – Accenture had its price target raised by analysts at Bank of America Co. from $365.00 to $388.00. They now have a “buy” rating on the stock.
• 9/26/2024 – Accenture was upgraded by analysts at Piper Sandler from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating. They now have a $395.00 price target on the stock, up previously from $329.00.
• 9/24/2024 – Accenture had its price target lowered by analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $376.00 to $370.00. They now have an “overweight” rating on the stock.
• 9/20/2024 – Accenture had its price target raised by analysts at Piper Sandler from $320.00 to $329.00. They now have a “neutral” rating on the stock.
• 9/20/2024 – Accenture had its “neutral” rating reaffirmed by analysts at Piper Sandler Companies. They now have a $329.00 price target on the stock.
• 9/18/2024 – Accenture had its price target raised by analysts at Mizuho from $352.00 to $365.00. They now have an “outperform” rating on the stock.
• 9/17/2024 – Accenture had its price target raised by analysts at Citigroup Inc. from $350.00 to $405.00. They now have a “buy” rating on the stock.
• 9/12/2024 – Accenture had its price target raised by analysts at TD Cowen from $293.00 to $321.00. They now have a “hold” rating on the stock.
• 9/6/2024 – Accenture had its price target raised by analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $330.00 to $376.00. They now have an “overweight” rating on the stock.

Accenture Stock Up 1.4 %

Accenture stock opened at $361.37 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $335.96 and its 200 day moving average is $320.60. Accenture plc has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $226.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.09, a PEG ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. The firm had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.71 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 11.95 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.64%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 54.21%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total value of $1,166,972.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 11,819 shares in the company, valued at $3,652,661.95. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total transaction of $2,696,402.25. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 22,849 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,564,161.45. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total value of $1,166,972.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 11,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,652,661.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Capital International Investors purchased a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $116,954,000. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC now owns 50,073 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $17,571,000 after buying an additional 1,745 shares during the period. Morningstar Investment Services LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 105.6% in the 4th quarter. Morningstar Investment Services LLC now owns 3,387 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,191,000 after buying an additional 1,740 shares during the period. CFS Investment Advisory Services LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 11.8% in the 4th quarter. CFS Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 975 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $342,000 after buying an additional 103 shares during the period. Finally, CenterBook Partners LP purchased a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth approximately $2,218,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.