Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Given New $425.00 Price Target at BMO Capital Markets

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) had its target price raised by BMO Capital Markets from $390.00 to $425.00 in a report published on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. BMO Capital Markets currently has a market perform rating on the information technology services provider’s stock.

Several other research analysts also recently issued reports on ACN. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on Accenture from $355.00 to $385.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Citigroup raised 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, BNP Paribas downgraded Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $383.23.

Accenture Stock Down 1.6 %

NYSE ACN opened at $366.37 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $229.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.05, a P/E/G 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 has a 50-day moving average price of $360.47 and a 200 day moving average price of $337.15.

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

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.62%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 51.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, COO John F. Walsh sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.24, for a total transaction of $1,866,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,593 shares in the company, valued at $6,566,411.32. This represents a 22.13 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total value of $170,948.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at $3,649,265.25. The trade was a 4.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661 over the last quarter. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter worth about $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 607.1% during the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares during the period. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new stake in Accenture during the third quarter worth approximately $39,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the third quarter worth approximately $51,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by 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.