Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Given New $429.00 Price Target at Piper Sandler

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) had its price objective boosted by Piper Sandler from $422.00 to $429.00 in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. Piper Sandler currently has an overweight rating on the information technology services provider's stock.

A number of other analysts have also weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Piper Sandler Companies reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $329.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $374.82.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE:ACN traded up $24.55 on Thursday, hitting $372.16. The stock had a trading volume of 6,069,188 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,694,376. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $360.14 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $336.31. Accenture has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $232.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.27 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Accenture will post 12.74 EPS for the current year.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan 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 buy up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company's management believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.59%. Accenture's payout ratio is 51.79%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total transaction of $3,385,440.00. Following the completion of the sale, 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the company'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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Accenture in the third quarter valued at about $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of 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 valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $51,000. 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.