Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Receives Consensus Rating of "Moderate Buy" from Brokerages

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) has been assigned an average rating of "Moderate Buy" from the twenty-two research firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Six research 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 1 year price target among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $382.14.

A number of analysts recently commented on the stock. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. UBS Group restated a "buy" rating and set a $395.00 price target (up from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Baird R W upgraded shares of Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 17th.

Accenture Trading Up 0.7%

NYSE ACN opened at $317.49 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $198.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.64, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33. Accenture has a one year low of $275.01 and a one year high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The business's fifty day moving average is $303.15 and its 200-day moving average is $337.11.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity

In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total value of $1,003,982.14. Following the transaction, the general counsel now owns 17,237 shares in the company, valued at $4,857,041.86. This trade represents a 17.13% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 5,364 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,512,111.60. The trade was a 3.05% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 8,516 shares of company stock worth $2,507,366. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. grew its holdings in Accenture by 62.2% in the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth $30,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 64.2% in the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Park Square Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth $31,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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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