Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Raised to “Buy” at StockNews.com

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) was upgraded by investment analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Friday.

Several other equities research analysts have also commented on the company. Barclays decreased 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. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on Accenture from $293.00 to $321.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Piper Sandler raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research note on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $364.64.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN traded down $6.11 during trading on Friday, reaching $349.70. 2,567,290 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,782,510. The firm 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. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $333.51 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $321.39. Accenture has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced 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 quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.71 EPS. Accenture’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Accenture will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total transaction of $1,166,972.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,652,661.95. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total value of $1,649,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at $2,964,751.98. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total transaction of $1,166,972.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 11,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,652,661.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 21,421 shares of company stock valued at $6,912,635. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of ACN. Swedbank AB bought a new position in Accenture during the first quarter valued at $820,912,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main increased its holdings in Accenture by 100.0% in the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 1,751,531 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $614,615,000 after buying an additional 875,723 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 44.7% in the second quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,709,989 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $822,238,000 after buying an additional 837,677 shares during the last quarter. Winslow Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth about $288,168,000. Finally, Generation Investment Management LLP purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $286,220,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.