Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Rating Increased to Buy at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Accenture (NYSE:ACN) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report issued on Monday.

ACN has been the topic of a number of other reports. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Robert W. Baird reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $385.04.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE:ACN opened at $349.45 on Monday. Accenture has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The firm has a market cap of $218.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.57, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $357.98 and its 200 day simple moving average is $344.94.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.27 earnings per share. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture will post 12.74 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.69%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Accenture announced that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total transaction of $3,385,440.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 20,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. The trade was a 30.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 26,125 shares of company stock worth $9,570,260 in the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 63.2% during the second quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC now owns 12,912 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,918,000 after buying an additional 5,000 shares during the period. Greenwich Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 4.5% during the second quarter. Greenwich Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,523 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $462,000 after buying an additional 66 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its holdings in Accenture by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 10,912,962 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,311,102,000 after buying an additional 131,544 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 6.1% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,681,940 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $813,743,000 after purchasing an additional 154,328 shares during the period. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $7,775,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

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.