Guggenheim Raises Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Price Target to $395.00

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) had its price objective boosted by Guggenheim from $380.00 to $395.00 in a report released on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the information technology services provider’s stock.

ACN has been the subject of several other reports. Piper Sandler Companies reaffirmed a neutral rating and set a $329.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $275.00 and set a hold rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $350.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 17th. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Finally, Mizuho boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $364.64.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN opened at $349.70 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $333.92 and a 200 day moving average price of $320.40. Accenture has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51. The stock 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 announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.71 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Accenture will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

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

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 40,070 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,390,445.40. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total value of $927,660.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 40,070 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,390,445.40. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, 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 completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 22,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,564,161.45. 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 three months. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp grew its position in shares of Accenture by 18.7% in the second quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 172,199 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $52,247,000 after purchasing an additional 27,168 shares during the last quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 11.9% in the first quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board now owns 36,750 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $12,393,000 after acquiring an additional 3,900 shares during the last quarter. Platform Technology Partners lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 7.0% in the fourth quarter. Platform Technology Partners now owns 1,996 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $733,000 after acquiring an additional 131 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 13.3% during the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 183,446 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $63,584,000 after acquiring an additional 21,516 shares during the last quarter. Finally, M&G Plc purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 1st quarter worth about $19,007,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.