Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Raised to “Buy” at StockNews.com

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) was upgraded by StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued on Friday.

A number of other equities research analysts have also weighed in on ACN. Wedbush lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $350.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $364.64.

Accenture Stock Down 1.7 %

NYSE:ACN opened at $349.70 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $219.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.02, a P/E/G ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $333.92 and its two-hundred day moving average is $320.81.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.71 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Accenture will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total transaction of $927,660.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 40,070 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,390,445.40. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total transaction of $1,166,972.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 11,819 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,652,661.95. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total transaction of $927,660.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 40,070 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,390,445.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635 in the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Swedbank AB bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the 1st quarter valued at about $820,912,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 100.0% in the fourth quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 1,751,531 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $614,615,000 after purchasing an additional 875,723 shares during the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 44.7% in the second quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,709,989 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $822,238,000 after purchasing an additional 837,677 shares during the last quarter. Winslow Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $288,168,000. Finally, Generation Investment Management LLP acquired a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $286,220,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.