Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Price Target Increased to $321.00 by Analysts at TD Cowen

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) had its price target lifted by investment analysts at TD Cowen from $293.00 to $321.00 in a research report issued on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “hold” rating on the information technology services provider’s stock. TD Cowen’s price objective suggests a potential downside of 8.18% from the company’s current price.

A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on ACN. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on Accenture in a report on Monday, June 24th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $335.00 price target for the company. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on Accenture from $340.00 to $275.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $395.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, May 24th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on Accenture from $372.00 to $345.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 16th. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies reduced their price objective on Accenture from $379.00 to $320.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, June 17th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $354.68.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $349.58 on Thursday. Accenture has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $219.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.01, a PEG ratio of 3.82 and a beta of 1.24. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $328.08 and its 200-day simple moving average is $323.80.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.15 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $16.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.55 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.19 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Accenture will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,819 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,652,661.95. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,819 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,652,661.95. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total value of $472,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 38,570 shares in the company, valued at $12,149,550. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth $2,061,490,000. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in Accenture during the first quarter valued at about $820,912,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main grew its position in Accenture by 100.0% during the fourth quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 1,751,531 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $614,615,000 after acquiring an additional 875,723 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC grew its position in Accenture by 44.7% during the second quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,709,989 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $822,238,000 after acquiring an additional 837,677 shares during the period. Finally, Winslow Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at about $288,168,000. 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.