Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Cut to Hold at StockNews.com

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) was downgraded by analysts at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a note issued to investors on Sunday.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Robert W. Baird restated a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Guggenheim increased their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, TD Cowen upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a report on Monday, September 30th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $383.23.

Accenture Stock Up 1.4 %

Shares of ACN opened at $353.85 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $221.44 billion, a PE ratio of 30.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company’s fifty day moving average is $357.59 and its two-hundred day moving average is $341.83. Accenture has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The firm’s revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.27 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture will post 12.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 36,673 shares of company stock worth $13,507,099. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Private Advisor Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 16.8% during the second quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 33,872 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $10,277,000 after purchasing an additional 4,881 shares in the last quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 6.5% in the 2nd quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 34,483 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $10,463,000 after acquiring an additional 2,092 shares during the period. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 9.8% during the second quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 2,496 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $757,000 after acquiring an additional 223 shares during the period. Umpqua Bank raised its holdings in Accenture by 1.6% during the second quarter. Umpqua Bank now owns 3,816 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,158,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at $28,000. 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.