Guggenheim Has Lowered Expectations for Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Stock Price

Key Points

• Guggenheim has decreased its target price for Accenture from $305.00 to $285.00, while still maintaining a "buy" rating.
• Accenture's shares opened at $232.20, reflecting a 2.9% decline, with a 1-year trading range between $229.40 and $398.35.
• Insider sales included significant transactions by CEO Mauro Macchi and Angela Beatty, indicating a notable decrease in ownership by company insiders.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) had its target price cut by research analysts at Guggenheim from $305.00 to $285.00 in a research note issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a "buy" rating on the information technology services provider's stock. Guggenheim's price objective suggests a potential upside of 22.74% from the stock's previous close.

ACN has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Barclays dropped their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. Rothschild & Co Redburn raised their price objective on Accenture from $250.00 to $255.00 in a research report on Friday, September 19th. Evercore ISI set a $280.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday. Rothschild Redb cut shares of Accenture from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. Finally, TD Cowen lowered their target price on Accenture from $342.00 to $313.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $317.38.

Accenture Stock Down 2.9%

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $232.20 on Friday. Accenture has a 1 year low of $229.40 and a 1 year high of $398.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company has a market cap of $145.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.49, a P/E/G ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 1.29. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $254.28 and a 200 day moving average price of $286.89.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.98 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $17.60 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.34 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.66 earnings per share. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Accenture will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 5,249 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,482,002.66. This represents a 3.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,283 shares of the company's stock, valued at $644,582.22. The trade was 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 valued at $834,280 over the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Viawealth LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 2.6% in the first quarter. Viawealth LLC now owns 1,307 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $408,000 after acquiring an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. Aprio Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.1% in the 1st quarter. Aprio Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,640 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $512,000 after acquiring an additional 33 shares during the period. First National Advisers LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. First National Advisers LLC now owns 9,420 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $2,939,000 after buying an additional 34 shares during the period. TCTC Holdings LLC raised its position in Accenture by 14.5% in the first quarter. TCTC Holdings LLC now owns 269 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $84,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Spectrum Asset Management Inc. NB CA raised its position in Accenture by 0.3% during the first quarter. Spectrum Asset Management Inc. NB CA now owns 11,777 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $3,675,000 after acquiring an additional 35 shares during the last quarter. 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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