Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Price Target Raised to $389.00

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) had its target price upped by Royal Bank of Canada from $377.00 to $389.00 in a report published on Friday, Benzinga reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the information technology services provider’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also commented on ACN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of Accenture from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $382.00 to $300.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 26th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Friday. UBS Group upgraded shares of Accenture from a neutral rating to a buy rating and set a $400.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Friday, July 19th. Finally, Susquehanna boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Friday. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $364.64.

Accenture Price Performance

Accenture stock opened at $349.70 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $219.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $333.92 and a two-hundred day moving average of $320.40.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.71 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Accenture will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture announced that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.69%. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 47.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total transaction of $2,696,402.25. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 22,849 shares in the company, valued at $7,564,161.45. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total transaction of $2,696,402.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 22,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,564,161.45. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total transaction of $927,660.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 40,070 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,390,445.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Accenture by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 59,718,732 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $20,699,110,000 after buying an additional 635,349 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 10,912,962 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,311,102,000 after purchasing an additional 131,544 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 2.0% during the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,652,537 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,999,056,000 after purchasing an additional 173,107 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 1.4% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,887,266 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,786,256,000 after purchasing an additional 80,514 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 4.1% during the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 3,797,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,316,086,000 after purchasing an additional 148,738 shares in the last quarter. 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.