Royal Bank of Canada Lowers Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Price Target to $392.00

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) had its price objective cut by analysts at Royal Bank of Canada from $399.00 to $392.00 in a note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “outperform” rating on the information technology services provider’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s price target indicates a potential upside of 29.40% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other research analysts have also recently commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Guggenheim dropped their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on Accenture from $396.00 to $364.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $380.05.

Accenture Trading Up 0.7 %

ACN stock traded up $2.02 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $302.93. 2,888,997 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,773,718. Accenture has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $360.05 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $357.39. The company has a market capitalization of $189.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.42, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.77 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Accenture will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 1,487 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.54, for a total transaction of $527,200.98. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,278,431.38. This trade represents a 13.85 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total transaction of $3,468,574.71. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,677,625.26. This trade represents a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190 in the last three months. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. grew its position in Accenture by 62.2% in the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. Finally, POM Investment Strategies LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 64.2% during the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.