Brokerages Set Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) PT at $377.82

Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) have earned a consensus recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from the twenty-two research firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $381.76.

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. Guggenheim dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. StockNews.com downgraded Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Baird R W raised Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Barclays cut their target price on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upgraded Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 target price for the company in a research report on Monday, March 17th.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of Accenture stock traded down $5.76 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $317.45. The company had a trading volume of 3,967,388 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,993,760. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $302.60 and a 200 day simple moving average of $341.22. Accenture has a 1-year low of $275.01 and a 1-year high of $398.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The company has a market capitalization of $198.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.77 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.86%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total transaction of $1,003,982.14. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 17,237 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,857,041.86. This represents a 17.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 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 transaction of $643,242.92. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 9,965 shares in the company, valued at $2,806,442.95. This represents a 18.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 62.2% during the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth approximately $30,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth approximately $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 64.2% in the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Park Square Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

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.