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

Key Points

• Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) has been rated as a "Moderate Buy" by 24 brokerages, with 15 offering a buy recommendation and one a strong buy.
• The average 12-month price target for Accenture is $358.08, though various analysts have suggested targets ranging from $290.00 to $390.00.
• Accenture reported an earnings per share (EPS) of $3.49 for the latest quarter, exceeding estimates, with revenue also surpassing expectations at $17.73 billion.

Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) has been given an average recommendation of "Moderate Buy" by the twenty-four brokerages that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, seven have given a hold recommendation, fifteen have assigned a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $358.0833.

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Guggenheim lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $334.00 to $302.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Mizuho set a $348.00 target price on shares of Accenture and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft began coverage on Accenture in a report on Thursday, July 17th. They set a "hold" rating and a $290.00 price target on the stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $253.7270 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $158.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.20, a PEG ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 1.29. Accenture has a 12 month low of $236.67 and a 12 month high of $398.35. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $278.70 and its 200-day simple moving average is $308.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.46.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 company 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 company posted $3.13 EPS. The firm'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. Analysts expect that Accenture will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th were issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 10th. Accenture's payout ratio is currently 47.13%.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total transaction of $141,170.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,283 shares in the company, valued at $644,582.22. The trade was a 17.97% 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 Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total value of $635,794.95. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 8,109 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,290,387.05. This represents a 21.73% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 2,954 shares of company stock worth $834,280 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Sanders Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the 2nd quarter valued at about $2,637,640,000. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Accenture in the 2nd quarter valued at about $2,216,850,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in Accenture by 63.9% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,953,621 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $2,793,889,000 after buying an additional 3,490,569 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Accenture by 5.7% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 63,814,234 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $19,912,594,000 after buying an additional 3,419,577 shares during the period. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 30,256.8% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,421,519 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,067,651,000 after buying an additional 3,410,248 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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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