Guggenheim Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Stock Price

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) had its price objective reduced by Guggenheim from $335.00 to $305.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They currently have a buy rating on the information technology services provider’s stock.

A number of other analysts also recently issued reports on ACN. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price 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. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Accenture to a “moderate sell” rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. HSBC initiated coverage on Accenture in a research note on Monday, July 28th. They issued a “reduce” rating and a $240.00 price target for the company. Mizuho set a $348.00 price target on Accenture and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Finally, Benchmark restated a “mixed” rating on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, June 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $335.39.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE:ACN opened at $240.65 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a current ratio of 1.46. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $257.73 and its 200 day simple moving average is $289.79. The company has a market cap of $150.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.16, a P/E/G ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 1.29. Accenture has a 52-week low of $234.18 and a 52-week high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.55% and a net margin of 11.61%.Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.13 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total transaction of $57,315.02. Following the transaction, the insider owned 5,249 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,482,002.66. This represents a 3.72% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total transaction of $141,170.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,283 shares in the company, valued at $644,582.22. This trade represents a 17.97% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 2,954 shares of company stock valued at $834,280 in the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Visionary Wealth Advisors lifted its position in Accenture by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. Visionary Wealth Advisors now owns 778 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $274,000 after acquiring an additional 26 shares in the last quarter. Viawealth LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. Viawealth LLC now owns 1,307 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $408,000 after acquiring an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. Aprio Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 2.1% in the 1st quarter. Aprio Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,640 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $512,000 after acquiring an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. First National Advisers LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. First National Advisers LLC now owns 9,420 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,939,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Finally, TCTC Holdings LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 14.5% in the 1st quarter. TCTC Holdings LLC now owns 269 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $84,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. 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.