Stifel Nicolaus Has Lowered Expectations for Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Stock Price

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) had its target price lowered by Stifel Nicolaus from $390.00 to $380.00 in a report issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the information technology services provider’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also commented on ACN. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price target on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $388.96.

Accenture Trading Down 2.4 %

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $348.28 on Wednesday. Accenture has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. 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 company has a market cap of $217.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $367.28 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $357.56.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.27 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Accenture will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,845,916.50. This represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total value of $527,200.98. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,278,431.38. The trade was a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Park Square Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. Menard Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $125,000. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $225,217,000. Fidelity D & D Bancorp Inc. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 6.4% in the fourth quarter. Fidelity D & D Bancorp Inc. now owns 745 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $262,000 after buying an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brucke Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth about $629,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently 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.