Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) have earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-three brokerages that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 12-month price target among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $385.04.

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. TD Cowen raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted 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. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN opened at $357.74 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $223.87 billion, a PE ratio of 31.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $357.48 and a 200-day moving average of $343.37. Accenture has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly 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. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.27 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Accenture will post 12.74 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.65%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 49.66%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total transaction of $250,477.14. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,102,817. This represents a 10.64 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 36,673 shares of company stock valued at $13,507,099 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the second quarter valued at about $28,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Accenture during the third quarter worth about $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 607.1% during the 3rd quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the period. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at about $39,000. 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.