Rothschild & Co Redburn Downgrades Accenture (NYSE:ACN) to Neutral

Key Points

• Accenture was dropped from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating by Rothschild & Co Redburn, with a revised price target of $250.00, indicating a potential downside of 2.34% from its current price.
• The company recently reported strong earnings, with an EPS of $3.49 for the quarter, surpassing analyst expectations by $0.17 and showing a year-over-year revenue increase of 7.7%.
• Insider trading was noted, with CEO Julie Spellman Sweet selling 2,251 shares, which represents a 21.73% decrease in her position.

Rothschild & Co Redburn downgraded shares of Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a research note released on Wednesday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They currently have $250.00 target price on the information technology services provider's stock.

Other research analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Mizuho set a $348.00 price target on shares of Accenture and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Argus set a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. HSBC started coverage on Accenture in a research note on Monday, July 28th. They set a "reduce" rating and a $240.00 price objective for the company. Evercore ISI started coverage on Accenture in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $330.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Barclays dropped their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $353.76.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN stock traded up $1.65 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $254.59. 4,235,857 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,641,824. The stock has a market capitalization of $159.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.27, a PEG ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 1.29. Accenture has a 12 month low of $236.67 and a 12 month high of $398.35. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $268.80 and a 200 day moving average price of $297.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.46.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The business's revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.13 earnings per share. Accenture has set its Q4 2025 guidance at EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 12.770-12.890 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th were given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.13%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total transaction of $635,794.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 8,109 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,290,387.05. This trade represents a 21.73% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total transaction of $141,170.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,283 shares in the company, valued at approximately $644,582.22. The trade was a 17.97% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 2,954 shares of company stock valued at $834,280 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth approximately $30,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $31,000. Kelly Lawrence W & Associates Inc. CA bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 1st quarter valued at $31,000. Inlight Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 1st quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, RMG Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at $33,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.