Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Price Target Raised to $422.00

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) had its target price increased by Piper Sandler from $395.00 to $422.00 in a research note published on Thursday,Benzinga reports. Piper Sandler currently has an overweight rating on the information technology services provider’s stock.

Other research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. UBS Group lifted their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $373.32.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $358.68 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $224.23 billion, a PE ratio of 31.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $360.54 and a 200-day simple moving average of $334.91.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The business’s revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.71 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Accenture will post 12.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.65%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 51.79%.

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

Insider Activity

In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $369.97, for a total transaction of $1,757,357.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 22,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,500,430.72. This represents a 17.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total value of $250,477.14. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,650 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,102,817. This trade represents a 10.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new position in Accenture in the third quarter worth $25,000. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at about $26,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the second quarter worth about $28,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Accenture during the third quarter worth about $30,000. Finally, Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 607.1% during the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.