Barclays Lowers Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Price Target to $390.00

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) had its price objective cut by Barclays from $415.00 to $390.00 in a research report report published on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the information technology services provider’s stock.

A number of other analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Mizuho reduced their price objective on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 17th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $378.23.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN opened at $311.38 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $194.86 billion, a PE ratio of 26.12, a P/E/G 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 has a 1 year low of $278.69 and a 1 year high of $398.35. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $356.77 and a 200-day moving average price of $356.56.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.77 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Accenture will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.90%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total transaction of $242,750.30. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 8,674 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,073,892.12. This represents a 7.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total value of $3,468,574.71. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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. In the last three months, insiders sold 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 6.5% during the fourth quarter. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA now owns 63,429 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $22,314,000 after buying an additional 3,883 shares during the last quarter. Davidson Trust Co. grew its stake in Accenture by 7.4% during the 4th quarter. Davidson Trust Co. now owns 2,307 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $812,000 after purchasing an additional 158 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 126.8% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC now owns 40,051 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $14,090,000 after purchasing an additional 22,391 shares during the period. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its position in Accenture by 37.5% in the fourth quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 3,094 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,088,000 after buying an additional 843 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SteelPeak Wealth LLC raised its position in Accenture by 127.1% during the 4th quarter. SteelPeak Wealth LLC now owns 2,323 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $817,000 after buying an additional 1,300 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.