Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Lifted to Overweight at Piper Sandler

Piper Sandler upgraded shares of Accenture (NYSE:ACN) from a neutral rating to an overweight rating in a research report report published on Thursday, MarketBeat.com reports. They currently have $395.00 price target on the information technology services provider’s stock, up from their previous price target of $329.00.

Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on ACN. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on Accenture from $375.00 to $350.00 and set a market perform rating on the stock in a report on Friday, June 21st. TD Cowen lifted their target price on Accenture from $293.00 to $321.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a report on Thursday, September 12th. UBS Group upgraded shares of Accenture from a neutral rating to a buy rating and set a $400.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 19th. Wedbush decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $350.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley downgraded Accenture from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $382.00 to $300.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 26th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $364.64.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN opened at $349.70 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $219.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.02, a PEG ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $333.92 and its 200 day simple moving average is $320.81.

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

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

Accenture announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total transaction of $2,696,402.25. Following the sale, the general counsel now owns 22,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,564,161.45. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total transaction of $2,696,402.25. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 22,849 shares in the company, valued at $7,564,161.45. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total value 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp raised its holdings in Accenture by 18.7% during the second quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 172,199 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $52,247,000 after purchasing an additional 27,168 shares during the last quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 11.9% in the 1st quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board now owns 36,750 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $12,393,000 after purchasing an additional 3,900 shares in the last quarter. Platform Technology Partners grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 7.0% during the 4th quarter. Platform Technology Partners now owns 1,996 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $733,000 after purchasing an additional 131 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 13.3% during the 1st quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 183,446 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $63,584,000 after acquiring an additional 21,516 shares in the last quarter. Finally, M&G Plc purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 1st quarter valued at about $19,007,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.