HSBC Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Stock Price

Key Points

• HSBC has reduced its price target for Accenture's stock from $240.00 to $215.00, indicating a potential downside of 7.37% from its previous close.
• Analysts have varied ratings on Accenture, with one Strong Buy, fifteen Buy, nine Hold, and one Sell, resulting in an average rating of "Moderate Buy".
• Accenture reported earnings of $3.03 per share for the last quarter, surpassing expectations and showing a 7.3% increase in revenue year-over-year.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) had its price objective lowered by analysts at HSBC from $240.00 to $215.00 in a research report issued on Friday,MarketScreener reports. HSBC's target price suggests a potential downside of 7.37% from the stock's previous close.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Rothschild Redb cut shares of Accenture from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Benchmark restated a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, June 20th. Evercore ISI set a $280.00 price objective on Accenture in a research report on Thursday. Wolfe Research cut their target price on Accenture from $290.00 to $285.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Finally, TD Cowen lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $342.00 to $313.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $314.54.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $232.09 on Friday. Accenture has a one year low of $229.40 and a one year high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.46. The company has a market capitalization of $145.37 billion, a PE ratio of 18.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 1.29. The company's fifty day moving average price is $254.28 and its 200 day moving average price is $286.89.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.98 by $0.05. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.55% and a net margin of 11.61%.The company had revenue of $17.60 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.34 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.66 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. 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 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated 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 in the company, valued at $644,582.22. The trade was a 17.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total transaction of $57,315.02. Following the sale, the insider owned 5,249 shares in the company, valued at $1,482,002.66. The trade was a 3.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 2,954 shares of company stock valued at $834,280. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Park Square Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. Kelly Lawrence W & Associates Inc. CA purchased a new position in Accenture during the first quarter worth $31,000. Inlight Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the first quarter valued at $32,000. RMG Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the second quarter valued at $33,000. Finally, Howard Hughes Medical Institute purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 2nd quarter worth about $40,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.

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