Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Stock Price Expected to Rise, BMO Capital Markets Analyst Says

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) had its target price raised by stock analysts at BMO Capital Markets to $355.00 in a report released on Wednesday, Stock Target Advisor reports. The brokerage currently has a “hold” rating on the information technology services provider’s stock. BMO Capital Markets’ target price would indicate a potential upside of 13.92% from the company’s current price.

Several other research firms also recently commented on ACN. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $378.23.

Accenture Stock Performance

Accenture stock traded up $2.71 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $311.61. 975,138 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,757,721. The firm has a market capitalization of $195.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.15, 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 current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The business has a 50 day moving average of $357.53 and a two-hundred day moving average of $356.88. Accenture has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.77 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Accenture will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 961 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.47, for a total value of $340,645.67. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,484 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,943,913.48. The trade was a 14.91 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total value of $527,200.98. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,278,431.38. This represents a 13.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 21,905 shares of company stock worth $8,181,753. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Larson Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 17.6% in the 3rd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 1,114 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $394,000 after acquiring an additional 167 shares in the last quarter. Avestar Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 30.7% in the 3rd quarter. Avestar Capital LLC now owns 3,333 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,178,000 after purchasing an additional 782 shares during the period. Baldwin Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. Baldwin Investment Management LLC now owns 12,950 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,578,000 after buying an additional 298 shares in the last quarter. Cynosure Group LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 18.4% during the third quarter. Cynosure Group LLC now owns 1,504 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $532,000 after acquiring an additional 234 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Blueshift Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 209.4% during the 3rd quarter. Blueshift Asset Management LLC now owns 5,777 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,042,000 after acquiring an additional 3,910 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.