Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Given New $455.00 Price Target at UBS Group

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) had its target price lifted by UBS Group from $450.00 to $455.00 in a report issued on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the information technology services provider's stock.

A number of other research analysts also recently issued reports on ACN. Piper Sandler Companies reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $329.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Guggenheim raised their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $370.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, StockNews.com raised Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $383.23.

Accenture Stock Down 1.6 %

ACN stock traded down $5.79 during trading on Friday, hitting $366.37. 6,982,683 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,711,833. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $360.47 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $337.15. The firm has a market capitalization of $229.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.05, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.27 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Accenture will post 12.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.62%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture's payout ratio is presently 51.79%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total value of $2,945,801.52. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 12,188 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,412,909.16. This trade represents a 40.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. 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 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. 1ST Source Bank boosted its stake in Accenture by 14.3% during the third quarter. 1ST Source Bank now owns 1,506 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $532,000 after buying an additional 188 shares during the last quarter. Copley Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at about $473,000. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the third quarter valued at about $8,920,000. Castellan Group raised its stake in Accenture by 4.1% during the third quarter. Castellan Group now owns 8,165 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $2,886,000 after purchasing an additional 323 shares during the period. Finally, Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB boosted its holdings in Accenture by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 41,175 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $14,555,000 after purchasing an additional 1,015 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.