Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Price Target Raised to $455.00

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) had its target price upped by UBS Group from $450.00 to $455.00 in a research report report published on Friday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the information technology services provider’s stock.

A number of other research analysts also recently issued reports on ACN. Susquehanna raised their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $383.23.

Accenture Trading Down 1.6 %

ACN stock opened at $366.37 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $229.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.05, a PEG 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. The company’s 50 day moving average is $360.47 and its two-hundred day moving average is $337.49.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.27 EPS. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Accenture will post 12.74 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.62%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 49.66%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total transaction of $250,477.14. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 5,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,102,817. This trade represents a 10.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total value of $170,948.50. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. The trade was a 4.47 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth $25,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $28,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture during the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 607.1% in the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at $39,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.