Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Trading Up 0% on Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) traded up 0% during mid-day 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. 562,580 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 79% from the average session volume of 2,671,473 shares. The stock had previously closed at $358.68.

ACN has been the topic of several other reports. Guggenheim upped their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Accenture from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their price target for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. BNP Paribas cut shares of Accenture from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $375.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price target on Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $374.50.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total transaction of $170,948.50. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. This trade represents a 4.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction 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 business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 78.6% in the 3rd quarter. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,448 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $4,047,000 after buying an additional 5,038 shares in the last quarter. MQS Management LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,040,000. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 70.6% in the third quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 35,591 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $12,581,000 after purchasing an additional 14,724 shares during the last quarter. M&G PLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 34.1% during the 3rd quarter. M&G PLC now owns 292,808 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $103,361,000 after purchasing an additional 74,438 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp increased its position in Accenture by 18.7% during the 2nd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 172,199 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $52,247,000 after buying an additional 27,168 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Down 0.4 %

The company has a market capitalization of $223.31 billion, a PE ratio of 31.25, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $360.55 and a 200 day simple moving average of $335.71.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $16.37 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.71 EPS. Accenture's revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This is a positive change from Accenture's previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.66%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 51.79%.

Accenture announced that its board has authorized a share buyback program 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 reacquire up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company's board of directors believes its shares are 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.