Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Upgraded at Baird R W

Baird R W upgraded shares of Accenture (NYSE:ACN) from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Monday morning,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other brokerages also recently commented on ACN. StockNews.com downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $384.45.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $324.52 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $203.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.22, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. Accenture has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $398.35. The business has a 50-day moving average of $361.19 and a 200-day moving average of $357.78.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.27 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Accenture will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction of $527,200.98. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,278,431.38. This trade represents a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter valued at about $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. boosted its stake in Accenture by 62.2% in the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter valued at $30,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. Finally, Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth about $30,000. 75.14% of the stock is 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.