Research Analysts’ Weekly Ratings Updates for Accenture (ACN)

Posted by Amy Steele on Dec 25th, 2024

Accenture (NYSE: ACN) has recently received a number of price target changes and ratings updates:

12/20/2024 – Accenture had its price target raised by analysts at BMO Capital Markets from $390.00 to $425.00. They now have a “market perform” rating on the stock.
12/20/2024 – Accenture was downgraded by analysts at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating.
12/20/2024 – Accenture had its price target raised by analysts at Jefferies Financial Group Inc. from $355.00 to $385.00. They now have a “hold” rating on the stock.
12/20/2024 – Accenture had its price target raised by analysts at UBS Group AG from $450.00 to $455.00. They now have a “buy” rating on the stock.
12/19/2024 – Accenture had its price target raised by analysts at Piper Sandler from $422.00 to $429.00. They now have an “overweight” rating on the stock.
12/16/2024 – Accenture had its price target raised by analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $370.00 to $396.00. They now have an “overweight” rating on the stock.
12/12/2024 – Accenture had its price target raised by analysts at Piper Sandler from $395.00 to $422.00. They now have an “overweight” rating on the stock.
12/9/2024 – Accenture was upgraded by analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating.
12/6/2024 – Accenture was upgraded by analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating. They now have a $420.00 price target on the stock, up previously from $370.00.
12/3/2024 – Accenture had its “neutral” rating reaffirmed by analysts at Robert W. Baird. They now have a $370.00 price target on the stock.
10/30/2024 – Accenture was downgraded by analysts at BNP Paribas from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating. They now have a $375.00 price target on the stock.

Accenture Stock Up 0.8 %

ACN stock traded up $2.86 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $361.63. 1,075,396 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,708,735. The stock has a market cap of $226.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.64, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $360.21 and its 200 day moving average price is $338.81.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN – Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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%. The company’s revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.27 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.64%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 49.66%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total value of $3,385,440.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 20,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,645,075.84. This trade represents a 30.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 in the company, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. The trade was a 4.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 36,673 shares of company stock valued at $13,507,099. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of ACN. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 378.9% in 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 during the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 44.7% in the second quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,709,989 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $822,238,000 after acquiring an additional 837,677 shares during the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. raised its position in Accenture by 251.3% during the second quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 995,896 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $302,165,000 after purchasing an additional 712,400 shares in the last quarter. Holocene Advisors LP bought a new stake in Accenture during the third quarter worth about $204,895,000. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 37,788.5% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 510,358 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $180,401,000 after purchasing an additional 509,011 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.