Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Upgraded to Buy at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Accenture (NYSE:ACN) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Monday.

Several other research firms also recently commented on ACN. Bank of America increased their price objective on Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Guggenheim raised their price target on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Citigroup raised their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Piper Sandler Companies reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $329.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, September 20th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $372.09.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $359.65 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $360.26 and a 200-day moving average of $333.42. Accenture has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $224.84 billion, a PE ratio of 31.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.22 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.71 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Accenture will post 12.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a $1.48 dividend. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 51.79%.

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

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total transaction of $3,385,440.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. This represents a 30.69 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC now owns 5,429 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,647,000 after buying an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 3.8% during the 2nd quarter. Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,296 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,303,000 after buying an additional 158 shares in the last quarter. ORG Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at about $424,000. Tsfg LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 31.1% during the 2nd quarter. Tsfg LLC now owns 135 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $41,000 after buying an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cascade Investment Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.4% during the 2nd quarter. Cascade Investment Group Inc. now owns 3,806 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,155,000 after buying an additional 90 shares in the last quarter. 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.