Piper Sandler Cuts Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Price Target to $355.00

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) had its price target trimmed by Piper Sandler from $364.00 to $355.00 in a research note published on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an overweight rating on the information technology services provider's stock.

Several other research analysts have also weighed in on the company. Wolfe Research raised Accenture from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $425.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. StockNews.com cut shares of Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Mizuho reduced their price target on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $377.82.

Accenture Stock Down 1.0 %

NYSE ACN traded down $2.96 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $282.28. The stock had a trading volume of 2,320,335 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,007,591. Accenture has a 12 month low of $275.01 and a 12 month high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The company's 50-day moving average price is $326.22 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $349.73. The company has a market capitalization of $176.80 billion, a PE ratio of 23.68, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.77 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.10%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is 48.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total value of $527,200.98. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,278,431.38. This trade represents a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total transaction of $3,468,574.71. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. This represents a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 23,778 shares of company stock valued at $8,408,087. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. increased its position in Accenture by 62.2% in the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the period. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth $30,000. Finally, POM Investment Strategies LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 64.2% in the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the period. 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.