Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Given Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) has received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-three ratings firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $387.22.

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on ACN shares. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. BNP Paribas cut shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total value of $527,200.98. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at $3,278,431.38. This represents a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at $1,845,916.50. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.0% during the third quarter. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,447 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $511,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. BSW Wealth Partners lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. BSW Wealth Partners now owns 4,077 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,441,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the period. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 5.7% in the fourth quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $182,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. raised its holdings in Accenture by 62.2% during the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Slow Capital Inc. lifted its position in Accenture by 0.3% in the third quarter. Slow Capital Inc. now owns 9,067 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,205,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of ACN opened at $386.04 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The firm has a market cap of $241.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.43 and a beta of 1.24. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $361.83 and its 200 day moving average price is $351.65. Accenture has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.27 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture will post 12.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.53%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.66%.

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.