Piper Sandler Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Stock

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) had its target price hoisted by equities researchers at Piper Sandler from $395.00 to $422.00 in a research report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “overweight” rating on the information technology services provider’s stock. Piper Sandler’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 17.65% from the stock’s previous close.

ACN has been the subject of several other research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded 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, December 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. TD Cowen raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. StockNews.com raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Mizuho boosted their price objective on Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $373.32.

Accenture Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of ACN opened at $358.68 on Thursday. Accenture has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $224.23 billion, a PE ratio of 31.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The business’s 50 day moving average is $360.61 and its 200 day moving average is $334.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.71 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Accenture will post 12.74 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total value of $1,899,689.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,825 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,490,266.50. This trade represents a 11.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the business’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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares in the company, valued at $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in Accenture by 4.8% in the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 24,693 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $7,492,000 after purchasing an additional 1,142 shares during the last quarter. Brookstone Capital Management boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 64.1% in the second quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 19,606 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $6,384,000 after buying an additional 7,658 shares during the last quarter. Gradient Investments LLC raised its position in Accenture by 3.9% during the second quarter. Gradient Investments LLC now owns 45,497 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $13,804,000 after acquiring an additional 1,723 shares in the last quarter. Raelipskie Partnership boosted its position in Accenture by 16.8% in the 2nd quarter. Raelipskie Partnership now owns 3,204 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $972,000 after purchasing an additional 460 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Everpar Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $269,000. 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.