Analysts Set Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Price Target at $373.32

Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-two ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and fourteen have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price target among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $374.50.

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, BNP Paribas lowered Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, October 30th.

Accenture Trading Up 0.1 %

NYSE:ACN opened at $357.31 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $360.49 and its two-hundred day moving average is $336.23. The company has a market cap of $223.38 billion, a PE ratio of 31.26, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The firm 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 firm’s revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.71 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Accenture will post 12.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.66%. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 51.79%.

Accenture announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total value of $1,899,689.80. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,825 shares in the company, valued at $14,490,266.50. This represents a 11.59 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661 over the last quarter. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 78.6% during the 3rd quarter. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,448 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,047,000 after acquiring an additional 5,038 shares during the period. MQS Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the third quarter worth $1,040,000. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in Accenture by 70.6% in the 3rd quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 35,591 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $12,581,000 after buying an additional 14,724 shares during the last quarter. M&G PLC raised its position in Accenture by 34.1% during the 3rd quarter. M&G PLC now owns 292,808 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $103,361,000 after buying an additional 74,438 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 18.7% in the 2nd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 172,199 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $52,247,000 after acquiring an additional 27,168 shares during the period. 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.