Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Stock Price Up 0% Following Analyst Upgrade

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) shares rose 0% during trading on Monday after JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on the stock from $370.00 to $396.00. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Accenture traded as high as $361.02 and last traded at $358.69. Approximately 562,580 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 79% from the average daily volume of 2,671,473 shares. The stock had previously closed at $358.68.

A number of other analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $395.00 to $422.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Citigroup increased their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Guggenheim increased their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Susquehanna raised their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $374.50.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were 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 $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.24, for a total transaction of $1,866,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 17,593 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,566,411.32. The trade was a 22.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.8% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,400,836 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $9,685,648,000 after purchasing an additional 471,792 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.2% during the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 10,912,962 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,311,102,000 after purchasing an additional 131,544 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.4% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,887,266 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,786,256,000 after purchasing an additional 80,514 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 378.9% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,491,736 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,941,219,000 after purchasing an additional 4,345,039 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.2% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,823,754 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,705,100,000 after purchasing an additional 56,937 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $360.55 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $335.71. The stock has a market cap of $223.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.71 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.66%. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 51.79%.

Accenture announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase program 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 repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

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.