Recent Analysts’ Ratings Changes for Accenture (ACN)

Posted by Christopher Mengel on Jan 15th, 2025

A number of firms have modified their ratings and price targets on shares of Accenture (NYSE: ACN) recently:

1/13/2025 – Accenture was upgraded by analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating.
1/8/2025 – Accenture was upgraded by analysts at Wolfe Research from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating. They now have a $425.00 price target on the stock.
1/5/2025 – Accenture was downgraded by analysts at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating.
12/28/2024 – Accenture was upgraded by analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating.
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.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN traded up $0.46 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $349.45. 2,597,460 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,509,393. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $357.98 and its 200 day simple moving average is $344.94. Accenture plc has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The company has a market cap of $218.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.57, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN – Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 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 net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.27 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.69%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the sale, the insider now owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares in the company, valued at $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 36,673 shares of company stock valued at $13,507,099 over the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its position in Accenture by 378.9% during 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 valued at $1,941,219,000 after purchasing an additional 4,345,039 shares in the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its holdings in shares of 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 in the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. grew its holdings in Accenture by 251.3% during the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 995,896 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $302,165,000 after acquiring an additional 712,400 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 2,666.5% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 715,219 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $251,607,000 after purchasing an additional 689,366 shares during the period. Finally, Holocene Advisors LP bought a new position in Accenture in the third quarter worth approximately $204,895,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.