Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Given New $355.00 Price Target at BMO Capital Markets

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) had its price target raised by BMO Capital Markets to $355.00 in a report issued on Wednesday, Marketbeat reports. The firm currently has a hold rating on the information technology services provider’s stock.

ACN has been the topic of several other reports. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. StockNews.com downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on Accenture from $396.00 to $364.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Baird R W upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $378.23.

Accenture Trading Up 0.8 %

NYSE ACN opened at $311.38 on Wednesday. Accenture has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $398.35. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $356.77 and a two-hundred day moving average of $356.56. The stock has a market capitalization of $194.86 billion, a PE ratio of 26.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.77 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Accenture will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.90%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.89%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,497 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.48, for a total transaction of $885,136.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 28,866 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,232,419.68. The trade was a 7.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 961 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.47, for a total value of $340,645.67. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,484 shares in the company, valued at $1,943,913.48. This trade represents a 14.91 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 21,905 shares of company stock worth $8,181,753. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in Accenture during the third quarter worth $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. increased its position in Accenture by 62.2% during the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Finally, POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 64.2% during the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Accenture

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.