Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Price Target Cut to $395.00 by Analysts at Guggenheim

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) had its target price decreased by equities researchers at Guggenheim from $400.00 to $395.00 in a report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a "buy" rating on the information technology services provider's stock. Guggenheim's target price would indicate a potential upside of 27.84% from the stock's previous close.

A number of other analysts have also commented on ACN. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Accenture from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $425.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on Accenture from $425.00 to $370.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $378.91.

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Accenture Stock Up 0.6 %

ACN traded up $1.79 during trading on Friday, hitting $308.97. The company had a trading volume of 3,889,341 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,761,674. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $357.53 and its 200 day moving average price is $356.88. The company has a market capitalization of $193.35 billion, a PE ratio of 25.92, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Accenture has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $398.35.

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 the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $16.64 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.77 earnings per share. Accenture's revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Accenture will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total transaction of $91,514.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 8,915 shares in the company, valued at $3,516,610.90. This represents a 2.54 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total value of $3,468,574.71. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. This represents a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753 over the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Accenture by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,394,657 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $21,246,236,000 after buying an additional 392,183 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,400,836 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $9,685,648,000 after acquiring an additional 471,792 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Accenture by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,528,348 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,750,021,000 after acquiring an additional 136,665 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its holdings in Accenture by 16.8% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,325,526,000 after purchasing an additional 1,770,024 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in Accenture by 22.8% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $4,283,225,000 after purchasing an additional 2,260,740 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.