Barclays Boosts Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Price Target to $415.00

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) had its price objective boosted by Barclays from $350.00 to $415.00 in a report published on Monday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an overweight rating on the information technology services provider’s stock.

Several other brokerages have also issued reports on ACN. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. UBS Group raised their price objective on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Morgan Stanley cut shares of Accenture from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating and lowered their price target for the company from $382.00 to $300.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 26th. Finally, Susquehanna raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $371.18.

Accenture Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $356.31 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $223.30 billion, a PE ratio of 32.63, a P/E/G ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 1.25. The business has a 50 day moving average of $335.34 and a 200 day moving average of $320.32. Accenture has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. The firm had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.71 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Accenture will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture declared that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.66%. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 54.21%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total transaction of $927,660.00. Following 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total value of $927,660.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 40,070 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,390,445.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the business’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 transaction, the general counsel now owns 22,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,564,161.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 21,421 shares of company stock valued at $6,912,635. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Swedbank AB bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the first quarter worth about $820,912,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main boosted its stake in Accenture by 100.0% in the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 1,751,531 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $614,615,000 after purchasing an additional 875,723 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 44.7% during the 2nd quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,709,989 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $822,238,000 after buying an additional 837,677 shares in the last quarter. Generation Investment Management LLP purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth $286,220,000. Finally, Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth $263,421,000. 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.