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

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) has received a consensus recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from the twenty-three research firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 12-month price target among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $377.82.

Several brokerages recently issued reports on ACN. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Mizuho reduced their price objective 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 dropped their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 17th. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Finally, Baird R W upgraded shares of Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total value of $643,242.92. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 9,965 shares in the company, valued at $2,806,442.95. This represents a 18.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the sale, the insider now owns 5,364 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,512,111.60. This represents a 3.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 15,041 shares of company stock worth $5,254,956. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth $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 purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Finally, POM Investment Strategies LLC increased its holdings in shares of 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. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN stock traded up $1.65 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $293.06. 1,399,908 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,999,281. The company has a market cap of $183.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.32. Accenture has a 12-month low of $275.01 and a 12-month high of $398.35. The stock's 50 day moving average is $318.01 and its 200 day moving average is $347.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted 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. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.77 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Accenture will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.02%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is presently 48.89%.

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.