TD Cowen Boosts Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Price Target to $321.00

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) had its price objective lifted by TD Cowen from $293.00 to $321.00 in a report issued on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a hold rating on the information technology services provider’s stock.

Several other research analysts have also commented on ACN. Susquehanna decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $360.00 to $350.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a report on Friday, June 21st. Wedbush decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $350.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on shares of Accenture in a research note on Monday, June 24th. They issued a neutral rating and a $335.00 price target for the company. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $395.00 to $340.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded shares of Accenture from a neutral rating to a buy rating and set a $400.00 price target for the company in a research note on Friday, July 19th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $354.68.

Accenture Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of ACN opened at $349.58 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $219.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.01, a PEG ratio of 3.82 and a beta of 1.24. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $328.08 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $323.42. Accenture has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 earnings per share 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 net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $3.19 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Accenture will post 11.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 11th were issued a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.48%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 11th. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 47.25%.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total transaction of $1,649,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at $2,964,751.98. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total transaction of $927,660.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 40,070 shares in the company, valued at $12,390,445.40. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total transaction of $1,649,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,964,751.98. 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 in the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Annapolis Financial Services LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 507.7% in the first quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 79 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the period. Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth approximately $29,000. Atwood & Palmer Inc. boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 214.8% in the first quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. now owns 85 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the period. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the second quarter worth approximately $26,000. Finally, Grayhawk Investment Strategies Inc. bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth approximately $35,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by 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.