Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) has been given an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the twenty-two analysts that are covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $371.18.

Several research analysts recently commented on the company. StockNews.com raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Mizuho lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Susquehanna increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Morgan Stanley downgraded Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $382.00 to $300.00 in a report on Wednesday, June 26th. Finally, Bank of America raised their target price on Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total transaction of $472,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,570 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,149,550. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of the 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,570 shares in the company, valued at $12,149,550. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total transaction of $2,696,402.25. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 22,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,564,161.45. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635 over the last three months. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Accenture by 8.2% in the fourth quarter. Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 357 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $125,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares in the last quarter. Kolinsky Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Kolinsky Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,888 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,013,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the period. West Paces Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Accenture by 10.2% in the first quarter. West Paces Advisors Inc. now owns 346 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $120,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares during the period. Tsfg LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 31.1% in the second quarter. Tsfg LLC now owns 135 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $41,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Meadow Creek Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 4.5% during the second quarter. Meadow Creek Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 747 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $227,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $362.24 on Tuesday. Accenture has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $336.64 and its 200-day simple moving average is $320.13. The company has a market cap of $227.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.17, a PEG ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. Accenture had a net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.71 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Accenture will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.63%. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 54.21%.

Accenture declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan 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 reacquire up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.