Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Receives $385.04 Consensus PT from Brokerages

Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the twenty-three research firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $385.04.

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on ACN. Robert W. Baird restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on Accenture from $355.00 to $385.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Susquehanna lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted 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.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total value of $170,948.50. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,649,265.25. The trade was a 4.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 17,593 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,566,411.32. This represents a 22.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 36,673 shares of company stock valued at $13,507,099. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

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

Accenture Price Performance

ACN opened at $349.93 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $218.98 billion, a PE ratio of 30.62, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $357.82 and a 200-day moving average price of $344.03. Accenture has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.27 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture will post 12.74 EPS for the current year.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.69%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.