Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Stock Rating Upgraded by The Goldman Sachs Group

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) was upgraded by stock analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday, Marketbeat reports. The brokerage currently has a $420.00 target price on the information technology services provider’s stock, up from their prior target price of $370.00. The Goldman Sachs Group’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 15.80% from the company’s previous close.

Several other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. BNP Paribas cut Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Susquehanna upped their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. StockNews.com cut Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $329.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $372.09.

Accenture Trading Up 1.3 %

NYSE ACN opened at $362.70 on Friday. Accenture has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $360.14 and a 200 day simple moving average of $332.86. The company has a market capitalization of $226.75 billion, a PE ratio of 31.73, a P/E/G ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.71 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Accenture will post 12.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture announced that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in 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 plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total transaction of $3,385,440.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. This trade represents a 30.69 % 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, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter worth approximately $25,000. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the 2nd quarter worth $26,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 85 shares during the period. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth $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.