Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Price Target Raised to $360.00

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) had its target price boosted by Susquehanna from $350.00 to $360.00 in a report released on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a neutral rating on the information technology services provider’s stock.

ACN has been the topic of several other reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Mizuho boosted their price target on Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Bank of America cut their price objective on Accenture from $419.00 to $365.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, June 5th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on Accenture from $293.00 to $321.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on Accenture from $340.00 to $275.00 and set a hold rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $364.64.

Accenture Trading Down 1.7 %

Accenture stock opened at $349.70 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $333.92 and a 200 day moving average price of $320.40. Accenture has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $219.15 billion, a PE ratio of 32.02, a P/E/G ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 1.24.

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

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.69%. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 47.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total value of $2,696,402.25. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 22,849 shares in the company, valued at $7,564,161.45. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the insider now owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at $2,964,751.98. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total value of $2,696,402.25. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 22,849 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,564,161.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 21,421 shares of company stock valued at $6,912,635. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Accretive Wealth Partners LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Accretive Wealth Partners LLC now owns 2,171 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $762,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the period. Aveo Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 7.6% during the fourth quarter. Aveo Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,264 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $794,000 after acquiring an additional 160 shares during the last quarter. 9258 Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 3.6% during the fourth 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 raised its stake in Accenture by 79.5% in the fourth quarter. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC now owns 2,535 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $881,000 after buying an additional 1,123 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Evoke Wealth LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 6.2% in the fourth quarter. Evoke Wealth LLC now owns 4,694 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,647,000 after purchasing an additional 276 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.