Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Rating Lowered to “Hold” at StockNews.com

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) was downgraded by research analysts at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report issued on Tuesday.

A number of other research firms have also weighed in on ACN. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. UBS Group increased their price target on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Robert W. Baird reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Wolfe Research raised Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $388.96.

Accenture Trading Down 2.2 %

NYSE:ACN traded down $7.51 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $327.79. 3,389,987 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,714,813. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $364.92 and its 200-day moving average is $358.63. Accenture has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $398.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $205.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.50, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.27 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Accenture will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the sale, the insider now 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.78, for a total value of $1,723,205.00. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 20,526 shares in the company, valued at $7,446,422.28. This represents a 18.79 % decrease in their position. 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. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of ACN. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA grew its stake in Accenture by 6.5% during the 4th quarter. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA now owns 63,429 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $22,314,000 after purchasing an additional 3,883 shares in the last quarter. Davidson Trust Co. grew its stake in Accenture by 7.4% during the 4th quarter. Davidson Trust Co. now owns 2,307 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $812,000 after purchasing an additional 158 shares in the last quarter. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 78.6% during the 3rd quarter. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,448 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,047,000 after purchasing an additional 5,038 shares in the last quarter. MQS Management LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth $1,040,000. Finally, Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC grew its stake in Accenture by 126.8% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC now owns 40,051 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $14,090,000 after purchasing an additional 22,391 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.