Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Downgraded to Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Accenture (NYSE:ACN) from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They currently have $300.00 price objective on the information technology services provider’s stock, down from their previous price objective of $382.00.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on ACN. TD Cowen decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $294.00 to $293.00 and set a hold rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 21st. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $350.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 17th. Mizuho decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $398.00 to $350.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of Accenture in a research note on Monday. They issued a neutral rating and a $335.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Wedbush reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $350.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $352.74.

Accenture Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of ACN stock opened at $304.60 on Wednesday. Accenture has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $300.89 and its 200 day simple moving average is $336.88. The firm has a market capitalization of $204.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.43 and a beta of 1.21.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.15 by ($0.02). Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. The company had revenue of $16.47 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.55 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.19 EPS. The company’s revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture will post 11.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 11th will be issued a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 11th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.69%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.25%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total value of $1,369,747.96. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 30,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,705,516.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 20,083 shares of company stock valued at $6,302,285 in the last ninety days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Accenture by 8.2% in the 4th quarter. Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 357 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $125,000 after acquiring an additional 27 shares during the last quarter. Brave Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Accenture by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Brave Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $361,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Addison Advisors LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 3,181 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,116,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Searle & CO. increased its stake in Accenture by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Searle & CO. now owns 803 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $282,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC now owns 1,363 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $478,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently 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.