Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Stock Rating Lowered by StockNews.com

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) was downgraded by StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a note issued to investors on Saturday.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 17th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.00.

Accenture Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $308.01 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $206.59 billion, a PE ratio of 27.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a 50 day moving average of $349.66 and a 200-day moving average of $342.35. Accenture has a 1-year low of $261.68 and a 1-year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. The firm’s revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.69 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Accenture will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Manish Sharma sold 1,486 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $370.39, for a total value of $550,399.54. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 4,503 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,667,866.17. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Manish Sharma sold 1,486 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $370.39, for a total transaction of $550,399.54. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 4,503 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,667,866.17. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 31,639 shares of company stock valued at $10,276,287. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Trueblood Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 3.3% in the 1st quarter. Trueblood Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,414 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,610,000 after buying an additional 329 shares in the last quarter. Northwest Bancshares Inc. purchased a new position in Accenture in the 1st quarter worth approximately $352,000. YHB Investment Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Accenture by 536.1% in the 1st quarter. YHB Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 6,068 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,103,000 after buying an additional 5,114 shares in the last quarter. SlateStone Wealth LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 76.1% in the 1st quarter. SlateStone Wealth LLC now owns 26,882 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $9,318,000 after buying an additional 11,618 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First National Trust Co grew its stake in Accenture by 3.9% in the 1st quarter. First National Trust Co now owns 41,301 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $14,315,000 after buying an additional 1,535 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.