BMO Capital Markets Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Stock

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) had its target price hoisted by analysts at BMO Capital Markets from $390.00 to $425.00 in a note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “market perform” rating on the information technology services provider’s stock. BMO Capital Markets’ price target suggests a potential upside of 16.00% from the company’s current price.

ACN has been the topic of several other reports. Citigroup lifted their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Susquehanna lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $385.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Mizuho boosted their price target on Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $383.23.

Accenture Trading Down 1.6 %

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $366.37 on Friday. Accenture has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The company has a market cap of $229.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.05, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $360.47 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $337.49.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. Accenture’s revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.27 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Accenture will post 12.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase 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 purchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 owns 38,825 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,490,266.50. This represents a 11.59 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total value of $3,385,440.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 20,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,645,075.84. This represents a 30.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Institute for Wealth Management LLC. lifted its position in Accenture by 8.4% in the second quarter. Institute for Wealth Management LLC. now owns 2,201 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $668,000 after buying an additional 170 shares during the last quarter. Independence Bank of Kentucky raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 18.8% in the 2nd quarter. Independence Bank of Kentucky now owns 7,192 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,182,000 after purchasing an additional 1,137 shares in the last quarter. Compass Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Accenture by 14.5% during the second quarter. Compass Capital Management Inc. now owns 192,541 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $58,419,000 after buying an additional 24,322 shares during the period. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 7.5% during the second quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 1,112 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $337,000 after purchasing an additional 78 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Trust N.A. lifted its position in Accenture by 4.3% during the second quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 42,456 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $12,882,000 after acquiring an additional 1,748 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.