Royal Bank of Canada Raises Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Price Target to $389.00

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) had its price target boosted by Royal Bank of Canada from $377.00 to $389.00 in a research report sent to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the information technology services provider’s stock.

ACN has been the subject of a number of other reports. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $395.00 to $340.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $293.00 to $321.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Piper Sandler raised shares of Accenture from a neutral rating to an overweight rating and upped their price target for the company from $329.00 to $395.00 in a report on Thursday, September 26th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a market perform rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Mizuho raised their target price on Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $371.18.

Accenture Trading Up 1.0 %

NYSE:ACN opened at $353.33 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $221.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.36, a PEG ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $334.35 and a 200-day simple moving average of $320.23.

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.68%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 47.25%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total transaction of $2,696,402.25. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 22,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,564,161.45. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total value of $2,696,402.25. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 22,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,564,161.45. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total value of $472,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 38,570 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,149,550. 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 over the last quarter. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Accretive Wealth Partners LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Accretive Wealth Partners LLC now owns 2,171 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $762,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Aveo Capital Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 7.6% during the 4th quarter. Aveo Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,264 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $794,000 after purchasing an additional 160 shares during the last quarter. 9258 Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. 9258 Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,308 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $459,000 after buying an additional 46 shares during the period. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 79.5% during the fourth quarter. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC now owns 2,535 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $881,000 after buying an additional 1,123 shares during the period. Finally, Evoke Wealth LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 6.2% during the fourth quarter. Evoke Wealth LLC now owns 4,694 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,647,000 after acquiring an additional 276 shares during the last quarter. 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.