Accenture (NYSE:ACN) PT Raised to $388.00 at Bank of America

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) had its target price upped by research analysts at Bank of America from $365.00 to $388.00 in a note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “buy” rating on the information technology services provider’s stock. Bank of America‘s price target indicates a potential upside of 10.95% from the company’s current price.

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price target on Accenture from $340.00 to $275.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, June 5th. Piper Sandler Companies restated a “neutral” rating and set a $329.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, September 20th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on Accenture from $375.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, June 21st. Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research note on Thursday. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $364.64.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE:ACN opened at $349.70 on Friday. Accenture has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $219.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.02, a PEG ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a 50-day moving average of $333.92 and a 200-day moving average of $320.81.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.71 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture will post 11.95 EPS for the current year.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program 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 programs are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total transaction of $1,649,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,964,751.98. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total value of $1,166,972.80. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,652,661.95. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total transaction of $1,649,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 21,421 shares of company stock valued at $6,912,635 in the last three months. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Swedbank AB bought a new stake in Accenture during the first quarter worth $820,912,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main lifted its holdings in Accenture by 100.0% during the 4th 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 buying an additional 875,723 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 44.7% during the 2nd quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,709,989 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $822,238,000 after purchasing an additional 837,677 shares during the last quarter. Winslow Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth about $288,168,000. Finally, Generation Investment Management LLP acquired a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $286,220,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.