Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Price Target Raised to $425.00

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) had its price target boosted by BMO Capital Markets from $390.00 to $425.00 in a research report released on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. BMO Capital Markets currently has a market perform rating on the information technology services provider’s stock.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Bank of America increased their price objective on Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Susquehanna upped their price objective 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. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. 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, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $383.23.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $366.37 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $229.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.05, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $360.47 and its 200 day simple moving average is $337.15.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.62%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 51.79%.

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

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total transaction of $170,948.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,649,265.25. This trade represents a 4.47 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 78.6% during the third quarter. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,448 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,047,000 after buying an additional 5,038 shares during the last quarter. MQS Management LLC bought a new stake in Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,040,000. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 70.6% during the 3rd quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 35,591 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $12,581,000 after purchasing an additional 14,724 shares in the last quarter. M&G PLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 34.1% in the third quarter. M&G PLC now owns 292,808 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $103,361,000 after purchasing an additional 74,438 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 18.7% during the second quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 172,199 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $52,247,000 after purchasing an additional 27,168 shares during the last quarter. 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.