Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Trading Up 0.1% on Analyst Upgrade

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report)'s stock price shot up 0.1% on Tuesday 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 $357.50 and last traded at $357.28. 667,880 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 75% from the average session volume of 2,670,542 shares. The stock had previously closed at $357.06.

Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on ACN. Susquehanna boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised 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. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, BNP Paribas cut shares of Accenture from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $375.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $374.50.

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Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total value of $170,948.50. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. The trade was a 4.47 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total transaction of $250,477.14. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,650 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,102,817. This represents a 10.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new stake in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at $28,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Accenture during the third quarter worth $30,000. Finally, Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 607.1% in the third 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 during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Accenture Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $223.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company's 50-day moving average price is $360.55 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $335.71.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.71 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

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

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company's management believes its stock is undervalued.

About Accenture

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.