Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) Given Consensus Rating of "Moderate Buy" by Analysts

Key Points

• Accenture PLC has received a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" from 26 research firms, with a mix of buy, hold, and sell recommendations.
• Analysts have adjusted their price targets for Accenture, with recent targets ranging from $215.00 to $315.00, reflecting a downward trend.
• The company has announced a quarterly dividend increase to $1.63, representing a 2.7% yield, and will be paid to shareholders on November 14th.

Shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) have earned an average rating of "Moderate Buy" from the twenty-six research firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, ten have issued a hold recommendation, fourteen have issued a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $300.2174.

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on ACN. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $315.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, September 24th. Guggenheim decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $305.00 to $285.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $325.00 to $271.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, September 9th. HSBC decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $240.00 to $215.00 in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Finally, Evercore ISI set a $280.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, September 25th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in ACN. Investors Research Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 73.8% in the 3rd quarter. Investors Research Corp now owns 106 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. Kelly Lawrence W & Associates Inc. CA acquired a new stake in Accenture during the 1st quarter valued at $31,000. Inlight Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the 1st quarter valued at $32,000. Heartwood Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, RMG Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at $33,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $241.11 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $247.45 and a 200 day simple moving average of $281.57. Accenture has a 52-week low of $229.40 and a 52-week high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a current ratio of 1.42. The stock has a market cap of $151.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.84, a PEG ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 1.28.

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 10th will be issued a $1.63 dividend. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 10th. This is a boost from Accenture's previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. Accenture's payout ratio is currently 48.72%.

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.

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