Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Given New $350.00 Price Target at Mizuho

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) had its price target reduced by Mizuho from $398.00 to $350.00 in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the information technology services provider’s stock.

Several other analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded Accenture from a buy rating to a hold rating and reduced their price target for the company from $409.00 to $295.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 15th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on Accenture from $340.00 to $275.00 and set a hold rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th. Piper Sandler cut their target price on Accenture from $379.00 to $320.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on Accenture from $372.00 to $345.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 16th. Finally, Guggenheim reiterated a buy rating and set a $395.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, May 24th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $360.50.

Accenture Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $285.34 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $302.44 and a 200-day moving average of $338.04. The company has a market capitalization of $191.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.87, a P/E/G ratio of 3.12 and a beta of 1.22. Accenture has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share (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 return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.69 EPS. Analysts predict that Accenture will post 12.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 11th were given a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.81%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 46.78%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total transaction of $2,657,040.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,937,488.01. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 4,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.00, for a total value of $1,422,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 42,781 shares in the company, valued at $13,518,796. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total value of $2,657,040.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 17,877 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,937,488.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 28,083 shares of company stock worth $8,959,325 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 59,718,732 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $20,699,110,000 after purchasing an additional 635,349 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 7.0% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,034,666 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,388,856,000 after purchasing an additional 720,647 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.0% in the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,652,537 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,999,056,000 after purchasing an additional 173,107 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 5.6% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 8,285,864 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,544,672,000 after purchasing an additional 443,004 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth approximately $2,061,490,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

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.