Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Receives Average Rating of "Moderate Buy" from Analysts

Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) have earned a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" from the twenty-three brokerages that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, fifteen have given a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $378.23.

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on Accenture from $396.00 to $364.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Mizuho dropped their price target on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Guggenheim dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total transaction of $242,750.30. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 8,674 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,073,892.12. This trade represents a 7.32 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 961 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.47, for a total transaction of $340,645.67. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,484 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,943,913.48. The trade was a 14.91 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Mascagni Wealth Management Inc. bought a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $164,000. DSG Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $269,000. Chancellor Financial Group WB LP bought a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $381,000. 111 Capital acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $1,796,000. Finally, Members Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $261,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN stock traded down $2.65 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $308.51. The company had a trading volume of 2,870,173 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,764,568. The company has a market capitalization of $193.06 billion, a PE ratio of 25.88, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $355.92 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $356.23. Accenture has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates 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 period in the previous year, the company earned $2.77 earnings per share. Accenture's revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.89%.

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.