Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Upgraded at Wall Street Zen

Key Points

• Accenture has been upgraded from a "hold" to a "buy" rating by Wall Street Zen, indicating increased confidence in the stock's future performance.
• Analyst price targets for Accenture shares have varied, with BMO Capital Markets reducing their target from $325.00 to $270.00, while others, like Mizuho and Stifel Nicolaus, have set targets around $309.00 and $315.00, respectively.
• Accenture recently reported earnings of $3.03 per share, exceeding analysts' expectations, with revenue of $17.60 billion—a 7.3% increase compared to last year.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) was upgraded by Wall Street Zen from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report released on Friday.

Several other analysts have also issued reports on the stock. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $325.00 to $270.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Mizuho lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $348.00 to $309.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $315.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 16th. HSBC lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $240.00 to $215.00 in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Finally, Evercore ISI set a $280.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, September 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $300.22.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN traded up $1.05 during trading on Friday, hitting $245.39. The company had a trading volume of 3,383,359 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,402,953. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $249.57 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $283.65. Accenture has a fifty-two week low of $229.40 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $153.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a quick ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.98 by $0.05. Accenture had a net margin of 11.02% and a return on equity of 26.45%. The business had revenue of $17.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.34 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.66 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Accenture will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

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 value of $57,315.02. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 5,249 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,482,002.66. The trade was a 3.72% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,283 shares in the company, valued at $644,582.22. This trade represents a 17.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 2,954 shares of company stock worth $834,280 in the last ninety days. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Investors Research Corp increased its stake in Accenture by 73.8% during the 3rd quarter. Investors Research Corp now owns 106 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 45 shares during the period. Kelly Lawrence W & Associates Inc. CA purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 1st quarter worth approximately $31,000. Inlight Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 1st quarter worth approximately $32,000. RMG Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $33,000. Finally, Howard Hughes Medical Institute acquired a new position in Accenture during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $40,000. 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.

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