Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Raised to “Buy” at TD Cowen

TD Cowen upgraded shares of Accenture (NYSE:ACN) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report published on Monday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. TD Cowen currently has $400.00 price target on the information technology services provider’s stock, up from their prior price target of $321.00.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. UBS Group increased their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Guggenheim boosted their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on Accenture from $340.00 to $275.00 and set a hold rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $371.18.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $356.31 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $223.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.63, a PEG ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 1.25. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $335.34 and its 200-day simple moving average is $320.32. Accenture has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.71 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Accenture will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.66%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 54.21%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock 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 purchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total value of $1,166,972.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,819 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,652,661.95. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total value of $1,649,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at $2,964,751.98. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total value of $1,166,972.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 11,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,652,661.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 21,421 shares of company stock valued at $6,912,635 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. 9258 Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. 9258 Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,308 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $459,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Campbell & CO Investment Adviser LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $1,776,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp grew its stake in Accenture by 19.4% in the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 17,892 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $6,278,000 after purchasing an additional 2,903 shares in the last quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 43.1% in the fourth quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC now owns 11,444 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,016,000 after buying an additional 3,445 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp raised its stake in Accenture by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp now owns 53,155 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $18,653,000 after buying an additional 1,200 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Company Profile

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.