Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Price Target Raised to $390.00

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) had its price objective boosted by BMO Capital Markets from $380.00 to $390.00 in a report released on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a market perform rating on the information technology services provider’s stock.

Several other research analysts also recently commented on ACN. UBS Group raised Accenture from a neutral rating to a buy rating and set a $400.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, July 19th. Piper Sandler Companies reissued a neutral rating and set a $329.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on Accenture from $340.00 to $275.00 and set a hold rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Finally, Mizuho upped their price objective on Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $364.64.

Accenture Stock Down 1.7 %

ACN opened at $349.70 on Friday. Accenture has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $333.92 and a 200 day simple moving average of $320.40. The stock has a market capitalization of $219.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.02, a P/E/G ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. Accenture’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.71 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture will post 11.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.69%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 47.25%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total value of $927,660.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 40,070 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,390,445.40. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total value of $1,649,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total value of $927,660.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 40,070 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,390,445.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 21,421 shares of company stock valued at $6,912,635 in the last ninety days. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Accretive Wealth Partners LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Accretive Wealth Partners LLC now owns 2,171 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $762,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares during the period. Aveo Capital Partners LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 7.6% in the 4th quarter. Aveo Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,264 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $794,000 after purchasing an additional 160 shares during the period. 9258 Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. 9258 Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,308 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $459,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 79.5% during the 4th quarter. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC now owns 2,535 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $881,000 after acquiring an additional 1,123 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Evoke Wealth LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 6.2% during the 4th quarter. Evoke Wealth LLC now owns 4,694 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,647,000 after acquiring an additional 276 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

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.