Barclays Cuts Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Price Target to $390.00

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) had its price objective cut by Barclays from $415.00 to $390.00 in a research note published on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the information technology services provider’s stock.

ACN has been the subject of a number of other research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $396.00 to $364.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Guggenheim cut their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st. Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Robert W. Baird upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $378.23.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $311.38 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $194.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. Accenture has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The company’s 50-day moving average is $356.77 and its 200 day moving average is $356.56.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.77 EPS. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total transaction of $91,514.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 8,915 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,516,610.90. This represents a 2.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,497 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.48, for a total value of $885,136.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 28,866 shares in the company, valued at $10,232,419.68. The trade was a 7.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 21,905 shares of company stock worth $8,181,753. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Mascagni Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth about $164,000. DSG Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $269,000. Chancellor Financial Group WB LP purchased a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth $381,000. 111 Capital bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $1,796,000. Finally, Members Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth about $261,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.