Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Receives $352.33 Consensus Target Price from Analysts

Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) have received an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-two analysts that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $353.41.

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on ACN shares. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $350.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $330.00 to $376.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of Accenture in a research note on Monday, June 24th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $335.00 price target on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $409.00 to $295.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 15th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 19th.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total transaction of $927,660.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 40,070 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,390,445.40. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of the business’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 sale, the chief financial officer now owns 38,570 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,149,550. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total transaction of $927,660.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 40,070 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,390,445.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 21,421 shares of company stock valued at $6,912,635 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Cim LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 9.6% in the second quarter. Cim LLC now owns 6,887 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,090,000 after purchasing an additional 604 shares in the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the second quarter valued at about $27,862,000. Brown Financial Advisors purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the second quarter valued at about $675,000. SRN Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.8% in the second quarter. SRN Advisors LLC now owns 8,327 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,526,000 after purchasing an additional 64 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sycomore Asset Management lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 66.1% in the second quarter. Sycomore Asset Management now owns 34,923 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $10,638,000 after purchasing an additional 13,902 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of ACN stock opened at $339.84 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $212.98 billion, a PE ratio of 31.12, a P/E/G ratio of 3.81 and a beta of 1.24. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $323.63 and a two-hundred day moving average of $324.05. Accenture has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.15 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $16.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.55 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.19 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Accenture will post 11.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 11th were issued a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 47.25%.

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.