Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Given Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) has earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and thirteen have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $387.00.

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Citigroup dropped their price target on Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Guggenheim initiated coverage on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $425.00 price objective on the stock. Piper Sandler raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Finally, Susquehanna restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $360.00 target price (down from $400.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, March 21st.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total transaction of $2,657,040.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at $5,937,488.01. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Accenture news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.91, for a total value of $1,974,437.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 161,581 shares in the company, valued at approximately $51,045,053.71. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total transaction of $2,657,040.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at $5,937,488.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 28,083 shares of company stock worth $8,959,325. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,061,490,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main boosted its holdings in Accenture by 100.0% in the fourth quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 1,751,531 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $614,615,000 after purchasing an additional 875,723 shares in the last quarter. Winslow Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $288,168,000. Generation Investment Management LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth about $286,220,000. Finally, Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at about $263,421,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of ACN opened at $311.99 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $209.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.29, a PEG ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.21. Accenture has a 52 week low of $261.68 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $340.17 and a 200-day moving average of $342.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.11. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.85 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.69 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Accenture will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 11th will be given a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.65%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 46.78%.

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.