Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Price Target Raised to $422.00 at Piper Sandler

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) had its target price increased by research analysts at Piper Sandler from $395.00 to $422.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “overweight” rating on the information technology services provider’s stock. Piper Sandler’s target price points to a potential upside of 17.65% from the stock’s current price.

Other analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Robert W. Baird reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. BNP Paribas cut Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $373.32.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $358.68 on Thursday. Accenture has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $224.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.38, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $360.61 and its 200-day simple moving average is $334.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.71 earnings per share. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Accenture will post 12.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 5,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,102,817. This trade represents a 10.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total transaction of $3,385,440.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 20,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. The trade was a 30.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in Accenture by 4.8% in the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 24,693 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $7,492,000 after acquiring an additional 1,142 shares in the last quarter. Brookstone Capital Management boosted its holdings in Accenture by 64.1% during the second quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 19,606 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $6,384,000 after buying an additional 7,658 shares in the last quarter. Gradient Investments LLC grew its position in Accenture by 3.9% during the second quarter. Gradient Investments LLC now owns 45,497 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $13,804,000 after buying an additional 1,723 shares during the period. Raelipskie Partnership lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 16.8% during the 2nd quarter. Raelipskie Partnership now owns 3,204 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $972,000 after acquiring an additional 460 shares during the period. Finally, Everpar Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $269,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

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.