Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Upgraded to Outperform at Robert W. Baird

Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Accenture (NYSE:ACN) from a neutral rating to an outperform rating in a research note released on Monday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm currently has $390.00 price target on the information technology services provider’s stock.

Other analysts also recently issued reports about the company. UBS Group increased their price objective on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. StockNews.com cut shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Piper Sandler cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $429.00 to $396.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $388.04.

Accenture Stock Up 2.3 %

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $326.25 on Monday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $362.51 and a 200-day moving average of $358.14. The company has a market capitalization of $204.16 billion, a PE ratio of 27.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. Accenture has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.27 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Accenture will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total value of $527,200.98. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,278,431.38. This trade represents a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 62.2% during the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. Finally, Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.