Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Piper Sandler Analyst Says

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) had its price objective raised by analysts at Piper Sandler from $422.00 to $429.00 in a research report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “overweight” rating on the information technology services provider’s stock. Piper Sandler’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 15.70% from the stock’s previous close.

Other research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Piper Sandler Companies restated a “neutral” rating and set a $329.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Guggenheim upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $374.82.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN stock traded up $23.19 during trading on Thursday, hitting $370.80. 3,419,569 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,682,628. The firm has a market capitalization of $231.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $360.14 and its 200-day moving average price is $336.31.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.27 EPS. Accenture’s revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Accenture will post 12.74 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total transaction of $2,945,801.52. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 12,188 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,412,909.16. This represents a 40.03 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the third quarter worth approximately $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 607.1% in the 3rd quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares during the period. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the third quarter worth about $39,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Accenture during the third quarter worth about $51,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Company Profile

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.