Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Receives $385.04 Average Price Target from Analysts

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-three brokerages that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $385.04.

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on ACN shares. TD Cowen raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Piper Sandler Companies reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $329.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, September 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, 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 transaction of $134,437.50. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 36,673 shares of company stock valued at $13,507,099 over the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in Accenture during the third quarter worth $25,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new stake in Accenture during the second quarter worth $28,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in Accenture during the third quarter worth $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings 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 valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the third quarter valued at $39,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of ACN stock opened at $349.14 on Thursday. Accenture has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $218.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.55, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $357.93 and a 200 day moving average price of $344.63.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.27 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Accenture will post 12.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.