Bank of America Raises Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Price Target to $388.00

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) had its target price boosted by Bank of America from $365.00 to $388.00 in a report published on Friday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the information technology services provider’s stock.

A number of other brokerages also recently commented on ACN. Barclays lowered their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $350.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 17th. Citigroup raised their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. Wedbush reduced their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $350.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Morgan Stanley lowered Accenture from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $382.00 to $300.00 in a report on Wednesday, June 26th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on Accenture in a report on Monday, June 24th. They issued a neutral rating and a $335.00 target price for the company. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $364.64.

Accenture Trading Down 1.7 %

NYSE:ACN opened at $349.70 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $333.92 and its 200 day moving average price is $320.40. Accenture has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $219.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.02, a PEG ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 1.24.

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 return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. The firm 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 company posted $2.71 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Accenture will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.69%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 47.25%.

Accenture announced that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan 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 purchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total transaction of $2,696,402.25. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 22,849 shares in the company, valued at $7,564,161.45. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total value of $2,696,402.25. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 22,849 shares in the company, valued at $7,564,161.45. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, 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 value of $927,660.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 40,070 shares in the company, valued at $12,390,445.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the second quarter worth $26,000. Annapolis Financial Services LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 507.7% during the first quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 79 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the second quarter worth $28,000. Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $29,000. Finally, Atwood & Palmer Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 214.8% during the first quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. now owns 85 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.