StockNews.com Upgrades Accenture (NYSE:ACN) to “Buy”

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) was upgraded by equities researchers at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued on Friday.

Other analysts have also issued research reports about the company. TD Cowen boosted their target price on Accenture from $293.00 to $321.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $395.00 to $340.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $275.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Finally, Mizuho boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $364.64.

Accenture Stock Performance

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

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.71 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Accenture will post 11.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan 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 repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total transaction of $1,649,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,964,751.98. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total transaction of $1,649,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at $2,964,751.98. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total transaction of $927,660.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 40,070 shares in the company, valued at $12,390,445.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 21,421 shares of company stock valued at $6,912,635 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp boosted its position 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 acquiring an additional 27,168 shares during the last quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board boosted its position in Accenture by 11.9% during the first quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board now owns 36,750 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $12,393,000 after acquiring an additional 3,900 shares during the last quarter. Platform Technology Partners boosted its position in Accenture by 7.0% during the fourth quarter. Platform Technology Partners now owns 1,996 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $733,000 after acquiring an additional 131 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 13.3% during the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 183,446 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $63,584,000 after acquiring an additional 21,516 shares during the last quarter. Finally, M&G Plc acquired a new stake in Accenture during the first quarter worth approximately $19,007,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.