Analysts Set Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Price Target at $368.23

Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) have earned a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" from the twenty-two brokerages that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and thirteen have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month price target among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $368.23.

ACN has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Guggenheim upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Susquehanna upped their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Piper Sandler Companies reissued a "neutral" rating and set a $329.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was 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 of the company's stock, valued at $3,649,265.25. This represents a 4.47 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661 over the last quarter. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Discipline Wealth Solutions LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the third quarter worth approximately $320,000. Second Line Capital LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the third quarter worth approximately $231,000. TCW Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. TCW Group Inc. now owns 11,501 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,065,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Hohimer Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth $279,000. Finally, TD Private Client Wealth LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 3.3% in the 3rd quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 15,609 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $5,517,000 after purchasing an additional 504 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Down 0.2 %

ACN traded down $0.83 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $353.12. 380,753 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,714,651. Accenture has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The company has a market cap of $220.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.87, a P/E/G ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.25. The company's 50-day moving average is $355.89 and its two-hundred day moving average is $328.19.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.71 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Accenture will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture announced that its board has approved a share buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in 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 programs are generally an indication that the company's management believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This is a boost from Accenture's previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.68%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is 51.79%.

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.