Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Price Target Cut to $355.00 by Analysts at Jefferies Financial Group

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) had its target price reduced by stock analysts at Jefferies Financial Group from $385.00 to $355.00 in a research report issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “hold” rating on the information technology services provider’s stock. Jefferies Financial Group’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 0.27% from the stock’s current price.

Several other equities research analysts have also issued reports on the stock. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Barclays upped their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Wolfe Research upgraded Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $383.74.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN traded up $1.47 on Tuesday, reaching $354.06. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 586,379 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,506,715. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $357.49 and a 200 day simple moving average of $346.26. 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 $221.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.72, a PEG ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.27 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture will post 12.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors 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 stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $369.97, for a total value of $1,757,357.50. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 22,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,500,430.72. This represents a 17.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 961 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.47, for a total transaction of $340,645.67. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,484 shares in the company, valued at $1,943,913.48. This trade represents a 14.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 20,595 shares of company stock worth $7,402,876 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of ACN. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 78.6% in the third quarter. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,448 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,047,000 after buying an additional 5,038 shares during the last quarter. MQS Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,040,000. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in Accenture by 70.6% in the third 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 during the period. M&G PLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 34.1% during 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 raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 18.7% in the 2nd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 172,199 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $52,247,000 after buying an additional 27,168 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

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.