Morgan Stanley Lowers Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Price Target to $340.00

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) had its target price cut by Morgan Stanley from $372.00 to $340.00 in a report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have an equal weight rating on the information technology services provider's stock.

ACN has been the subject of a number of other reports. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $390.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. UBS Group reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $395.00 target price (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Finally, Guggenheim lowered their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $382.15.

Accenture Stock Down 1.1%

Shares of NYSE ACN traded down $3.44 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $314.69. The company had a trading volume of 301,556 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,948,086. The stock has a market capitalization of $197.10 billion, a PE ratio of 26.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.33. Accenture has a twelve month low of $275.01 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The stock's 50 day moving average is $304.89 and its 200-day moving average is $336.13.

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

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were given a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.88%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.89%.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, COO John F. Walsh sold 2,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $325.00, for a total value of $812,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 15,882 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,161,650. This trade represents a 13.60% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 9,965 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,806,442.95. This represents a 18.65% decrease in their position. 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. Insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of ACN. Brighton Jones LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 36.2% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 18,438 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $6,486,000 after buying an additional 4,905 shares during the period. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 29,326.4% during the fourth quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 233,940 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $82,000 after purchasing an additional 233,145 shares during the period. Certuity LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 32.3% during the 4th quarter. Certuity LLC now owns 1,461 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $514,000 after purchasing an additional 357 shares in the last quarter. Avidian Wealth Enterprises LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Avidian Wealth Enterprises LLC now owns 2,950 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,038,000 after purchasing an additional 65 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 28.1% during the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 259,159 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $90,425,000 after acquiring an additional 56,829 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.