UBS Group Cuts Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Price Target to $387.00

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) had its target price lowered by UBS Group from $455.00 to $387.00 in a research note released on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the information technology services provider's stock.

A number of other research analysts have also recently issued reports on ACN. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 17th. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on Accenture from $396.00 to $364.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Baird R W raised Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $378.91.

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Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE ACN traded up $2.86 on Friday, hitting $308.18. 1,879,421 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,227,208. 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 moving average price is $359.16 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $357.33. The firm has a market cap of $192.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.85, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates 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 the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.77 earnings per share. Accenture's quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Accenture will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.92%. Accenture's payout ratio is 49.66%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 961 shares of the 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 owns 5,484 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,943,913.48. This represents a 14.91 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, 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 directly owns 8,674 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,073,892.12. This trade represents a 7.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753. Insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Visionary Wealth Advisors increased its holdings in Accenture by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. Visionary Wealth Advisors now owns 778 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $274,000 after purchasing an additional 26 shares in the last quarter. Vivaldi Capital Management LP grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Vivaldi Capital Management LP now owns 782 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $292,000 after buying an additional 27 shares in the last quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its position in Accenture by 5.7% during the 4th quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 518 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $182,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. boosted its holdings 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 worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the period. Finally, Tradition Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.3% during the third quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,951 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $3,871,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

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.