Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Price Target Raised to $396.00

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) had its price objective lifted by equities researchers at JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $370.00 to $396.00 in a report issued on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “overweight” rating on the information technology services provider’s stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co.‘s price target would suggest a potential upside of 10.47% from the company’s previous close.

Several other analysts have also commented on ACN. Guggenheim increased their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Piper Sandler raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $395.00 to $422.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Mizuho upped their target price on Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. StockNews.com raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Susquehanna raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $374.50.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN stock traded down $0.21 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $358.47. The company had a trading volume of 795,248 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,672,524. The company has a market capitalization of $224.10 billion, a PE ratio of 31.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $360.54 and a 200 day moving average of $335.20. Accenture has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.71 earnings per share. Accenture’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Accenture will post 12.74 EPS for the current year.

Accenture declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program 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 reacquire up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total value of $250,477.14. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,102,817. The trade was a 10.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total value of $170,948.50. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at $3,649,265.25. This trade represents a 4.47 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Accenture by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,400,836 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $9,685,648,000 after purchasing an additional 471,792 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in Accenture by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 10,912,962 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,311,102,000 after acquiring an additional 131,544 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.4% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,887,266 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,786,256,000 after purchasing an additional 80,514 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its position in Accenture by 378.9% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,491,736 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,941,219,000 after buying an additional 4,345,039 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.2% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,823,754 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,705,100,000 after acquiring an additional 56,937 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

About Accenture

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.