Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Price Target Cut to $325.00 by Analysts at Morgan Stanley

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) had its price target lowered by Morgan Stanley from $340.00 to $325.00 in a report released on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. Morgan Stanley currently has an equal weight rating on the information technology services provider's stock.

ACN has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Wall Street Zen cut Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Mizuho dropped their target price on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their price objective on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $370.71.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN traded down $2.57 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $293.51. The stock had a trading volume of 2,061,766 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,935,650. The firm has a market cap of $183.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.37, a PEG ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a current ratio of 1.46. Accenture has a 12 month low of $273.19 and a 12 month high of $398.35. The business has a fifty day moving average of $307.78 and a 200 day moving average of $332.11.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The business had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $17.26 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $3.13 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Accenture will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.02%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is currently 47.13%.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. This trade represents a 3.05% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total value of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 9,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,806,442.95. This trade represents a 18.65% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Howe & Rusling Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 27.5% during the first quarter. Howe & Rusling Inc. now owns 12,916 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $4,030,000 after purchasing an additional 2,786 shares during the last quarter. Maple Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in Accenture by 0.4% in the first quarter. Maple Capital Management Inc. now owns 110,723 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $34,550,000 after buying an additional 438 shares during the last quarter. eCIO Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the first quarter valued at $197,000. Cim LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 6.3% in the 1st quarter. Cim LLC now owns 6,846 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $2,136,000 after acquiring an additional 404 shares during the period. Finally, First Hawaiian Bank lifted its position in Accenture by 2.9% in the 1st quarter. First Hawaiian Bank now owns 2,515 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $785,000 after purchasing an additional 71 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.