Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Upgraded by TD Cowen to “Buy”

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) was upgraded by research analysts at TD Cowen to a “buy” rating in a research note issued on Monday, Stock Target Advisor reports. The firm currently has a $400.00 target price on the information technology services provider’s stock. TD Cowen’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 14.38% from the company’s current price.

Several other research firms have also issued reports on ACN. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. StockNews.com raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Barclays dropped their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $350.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 17th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price target on Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $368.23.

Accenture Price Performance

Accenture stock opened at $349.70 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $219.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $333.92 and a two-hundred day moving average of $320.40.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.71 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Accenture will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total transaction of $472,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,570 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,149,550. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total value of $472,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,570 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,149,550. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total value of $927,660.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 40,070 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,390,445.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 21,421 shares of company stock valued at $6,912,635. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in ACN. 9258 Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. 9258 Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,308 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $459,000 after buying an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Campbell & CO Investment Adviser LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,776,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its stake in Accenture by 19.4% during the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 17,892 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $6,278,000 after purchasing an additional 2,903 shares during the last quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 43.1% during the fourth quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC now owns 11,444 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,016,000 after purchasing an additional 3,445 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp lifted its stake in Accenture by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp now owns 53,155 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $18,653,000 after purchasing an additional 1,200 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Company Profile

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.