Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Given Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the seventeen analysts that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and ten have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $337.26.

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on ACN shares. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 11th. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $332.00 to $322.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 29th. Redburn Atlantic started coverage on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday. They set a “buy” rating and a $410.00 target price on the stock. UBS Group started coverage on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, November 7th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $333.00 price target for the company. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $340.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, September 29th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $291.41, for a total transaction of $2,622,690.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 35,830 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,441,220.30. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $291.41, for a total transaction of $2,622,690.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 35,830 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,441,220.30. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $302.04, for a total transaction of $1,887,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 161,622 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $48,816,308.88. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 36,334 shares of company stock valued at $10,939,027 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.08% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth about $1,850,765,000. Osaic Holdings Inc. grew its holdings in Accenture by 2,444.1% in the second quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc. now owns 5,922,292 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $75,320,000 after purchasing an additional 5,689,509 shares during the period. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 101,214.0% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,040,402 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,078,141,000 after purchasing an additional 4,036,414 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley grew its holdings in Accenture by 14.9% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 16,642,841 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,440,976,000 after purchasing an additional 2,163,582 shares during the period. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 21.7% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 11,535,663 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,297,009,000 after buying an additional 2,060,646 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.42% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $327.84 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $309.87 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $307.73. Accenture has a 1-year low of $242.80 and a 1-year high of $330.43. The company has a market cap of $205.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.44, a PEG ratio of 3.02 and a beta of 1.23.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 28th. The information technology services provider reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.65 by $0.06. Accenture had a return on equity of 29.74% and a net margin of 10.72%. The firm had revenue of $15.99 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.07 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.60 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Accenture will post 12.1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 12th were paid a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 11th. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.12. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.57%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 47.91%.

Accenture announced that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program on Thursday, September 28th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.