Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Sets New 12-Month Low - Here's What Happened

Key Points

• Accenture's stock hit a new 52-week low of $236.31, with a recent trading price of $236.67, following a significant drop in ratings from several brokerages.
• Despite the downturn, Accenture reported a Q2 earnings per share (EPS) of $3.49, surpassing estimates, with a revenue of $17.73 billion, marking a 7.7% increase year-over-year.
• Insiders have sold a total of 2,954 shares worth approximately $834,280 over the last 90 days, indicating potential concerns about the company's stock performance.

Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report)'s stock price hit a new 52-week low on Monday . The company traded as low as $236.31 and last traded at $236.67, with a volume of 2961517 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $238.54.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on ACN. Rothschild Redb downgraded shares of Accenture from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Benchmark restated a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, June 20th. Argus set a $370.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Rothschild & Co Redburn cut shares of Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $250.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Finally, Evercore ISI started coverage on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $330.00 price target for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $346.92.

Accenture Trading Down 0.3%

The firm has a market capitalization of $148.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 1.30. The firm's 50 day moving average is $261.96 and its 200 day moving average is $291.97. The company has a quick ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.13 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. Accenture has set its Q4 2025 guidance at EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 12.770-12.890 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total transaction of $57,315.02. Following the sale, the insider owned 5,249 shares in the company, valued at $1,482,002.66. The trade was a 3.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total transaction of $141,170.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,283 shares in the company, valued at $644,582.22. This represents a 17.97% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 2,954 shares of company stock worth $834,280 over the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Lipe & Dalton increased its stake in Accenture by 2,087.4% in the 1st quarter. Lipe & Dalton now owns 5,031 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,570,000 after buying an additional 4,801 shares during the period. Redwood Investments LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 6.2% during the 1st quarter. Redwood Investments LLC now owns 22,087 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $6,892,000 after purchasing an additional 1,287 shares in the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 40.5% during the 1st quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 98,633 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $30,777,000 after purchasing an additional 28,446 shares in the last quarter. Park National Corp OH raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 4.3% during the 2nd quarter. Park National Corp OH now owns 129,667 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $38,756,000 after purchasing an additional 5,388 shares in the last quarter. Finally, United Bank bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 1st quarter valued at $758,000. 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.

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