Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) Receives $370.71 Consensus Target Price from Brokerages

Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-one ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $370.71.

Several equities analysts have recently commented on ACN shares. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. Benchmark reiterated a “mixed” rating on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, June 20th. Robert W. Baird upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Guggenheim decreased their price target on Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. Finally, Piper Sandler decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th.

Accenture Stock Down 2.0%

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $297.27 on Thursday. Accenture has a one year low of $273.19 and a one year high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.46. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $309.75 and its 200-day moving average price is $328.40. The stock has a market capitalization of $186.19 billion, a PE ratio of 23.67, a P/E/G ratio of 2.84 and a beta of 1.29.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.55% and a net margin of 11.61%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.13 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.99%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 47.13%.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total value of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 5,364 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 9,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,806,442.95. This represents a 18.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in Accenture by 16.8% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,325,526,000 after purchasing an additional 1,770,024 shares during the period. Alteri Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $321,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 47.6% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,446 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $861,000 after acquiring an additional 789 shares during the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 62.2% during the 1st quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 905 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $282,000 after acquiring an additional 347 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $317,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.