Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Downgraded by StockNews.com to Hold

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) was downgraded by equities research analysts at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report released on Thursday.

A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on ACN. Piper Sandler raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Citigroup upped their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $371.18.

Accenture Trading Down 0.9 %

ACN opened at $360.87 on Thursday. Accenture has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $349.56 and a 200 day moving average price of $322.81. The stock has a market cap of $226.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.05, a PEG ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.71 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture will post 12.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total value of $250,477.14. Following the sale, the insider now owns 5,650 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,102,817. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total value of $250,477.14. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,102,817. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $369.97, for a total value of $1,757,357.50. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 22,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,500,430.72. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 24,971 shares of company stock valued at $9,330,113 in the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Financial Advocates Investment Management raised its holdings in Accenture by 5.0% in the third quarter. Financial Advocates Investment Management now owns 5,182 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,832,000 after purchasing an additional 246 shares during the period. Cornerstone Wealth Group LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 662.5% during the 3rd quarter. Cornerstone Wealth Group LLC now owns 17,438 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $6,164,000 after buying an additional 15,151 shares during the period. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 547.1% during the third quarter. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,158 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,116,000 after acquiring an additional 2,670 shares in the last quarter. SteelPeak Wealth LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 10.2% in the third quarter. SteelPeak Wealth LLC now owns 1,023 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $362,000 after acquiring an additional 95 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Diversify Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 7.5% during the third quarter. Diversify Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,258 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,802,000 after purchasing an additional 715 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

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.