Barclays Lowers Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Price Target to $390.00

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) had its price objective cut by investment analysts at Barclays from $415.00 to $390.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “overweight” rating on the information technology services provider’s stock. Barclays‘s target price would indicate a potential upside of 26.23% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other research firms have also weighed in on ACN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Mizuho cut their price target on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price target for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Guggenheim decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Eight equities 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $378.91.

Accenture Stock Up 0.6 %

ACN opened at $308.97 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The stock has a market capitalization of $193.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.92, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a fifty day moving average of $357.53 and a two-hundred day moving average of $356.88. Accenture has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.77 EPS. Accenture’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Accenture will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total transaction of $3,468,574.71. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,677,625.26. The trade was a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total transaction of $242,750.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 8,674 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,073,892.12. The trade was a 7.32 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Accenture by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,394,657 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $21,246,236,000 after purchasing an additional 392,183 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in Accenture by 1.8% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,400,836 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $9,685,648,000 after acquiring an additional 471,792 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Accenture by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,528,348 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,750,021,000 after buying an additional 136,665 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 16.8% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,325,526,000 after acquiring an additional 1,770,024 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in shares of Accenture by 22.8% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,283,225,000 after purchasing an additional 2,260,740 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.