Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Shares Gap Down After Analyst Downgrade

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)’s stock price gapped down before the market opened on Thursday after Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on the stock from $399.00 to $392.00. The stock had previously closed at $324.47, but opened at $296.15. Royal Bank of Canada currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Accenture shares last traded at $299.56, with a volume of 2,047,935 shares.

Several other research analysts have also weighed in on the company. StockNews.com lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Mizuho lowered their price target on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Baird R W raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on Accenture from $396.00 to $364.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $380.05.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total value of $527,200.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,278,431.38. The trade was a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,845,916.50. This represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190 in the last ninety days. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth $2,351,683,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 378.9% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,491,736 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,941,219,000 after buying an additional 4,345,039 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 22.8% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,283,225,000 after buying an additional 2,260,740 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter worth $666,495,000. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 16.8% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,325,526,000 after buying an additional 1,770,024 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The company has a market cap of $190.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.60, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $359.16 and a 200 day moving average price of $357.13.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.77 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.94%. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 49.66%.

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.