Accenture (NYSE:ACN – Get Free Report) had its price target boosted by equities researchers at Mizuho from $352.00 to $365.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “outperform” rating on the information technology services provider’s stock. Mizuho’s price target points to a potential upside of 8.51% from the company’s current price.
A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on ACN. Susquehanna dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $360.00 to $350.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, June 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $330.00 to $376.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 6th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $375.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, June 21st. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $382.00 to $300.00 in a report on Wednesday, June 26th. Finally, TD Cowen upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $293.00 to $321.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $355.59.
Accenture Stock Performance
Shares of NYSE ACN traded down $0.68 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $336.36. The stock had a trading volume of 1,103,752 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,755,452. The firm has a market cap of $210.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.82 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture has a twelve month low of $278.69 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $329.94 and its 200 day moving average price is $322.59.
Accenture (NYSE:ACN – Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.15 by ($0.02). Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. The firm had revenue of $16.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.55 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.19 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Accenture will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Insider Activity at Accenture
In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,964,751.98. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,964,751.98. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total transaction 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 $3,652,661.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.
Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture
A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Accenture by 1.1% in the first 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 purchasing an additional 635,349 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its stake in Accenture by 1.2% in the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 10,912,962 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,311,102,000 after purchasing an additional 131,544 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its stake in Accenture by 2.0% in the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 8,652,537 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,999,056,000 after purchasing an additional 173,107 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc raised its stake in Accenture by 1.4% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,887,266 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,786,256,000 after purchasing an additional 80,514 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC grew its position in Accenture by 4.1% during the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 3,797,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,316,086,000 after acquiring an additional 148,738 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
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.