Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Downgraded by StockNews.com to “Hold”

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) was downgraded by StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued on Sunday.

A number of other research firms also recently commented on ACN. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Piper Sandler Companies reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $329.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on Accenture from $355.00 to $385.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, TD Cowen raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a report on Monday, September 30th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $383.23.

Accenture Stock Up 1.4 %

ACN stock opened at $353.85 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $221.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.96, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $357.59 and a 200-day simple moving average of $341.83.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The business’s revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.27 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Accenture will post 12.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback 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 reacquire up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 5,090 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.22, for a total value of $1,899,689.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 38,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,490,266.50. This represents a 11.59 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 36,673 shares of company stock worth $13,507,099 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth about $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Accenture during the third quarter worth approximately $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 607.1% in the 3rd quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares during the period. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth $39,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the third quarter worth $51,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.