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

Key Points

• Morgan Stanley has lowered its price target for Accenture from $325.00 to $271.00, maintaining an "equal weight" rating, suggesting a potential upside of 5.95% from the stock's previous close.
• Accenture's stock has shown significant fluctuations, with a 52-week low of $236.67 and a high of $398.35, while insider selling has also occurred recently, with CEO Mauro Macchi selling 500 shares.
• The company reported a 7.7% increase in quarterly revenue compared to the same quarter last year, with earnings per share of $3.49, surpassing analysts' expectations of $3.32.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) had its target price decreased by stock analysts at Morgan Stanley from $325.00 to $271.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm currently has an "equal weight" rating on the information technology services provider's stock. Morgan Stanley's price target suggests a potential upside of 13.60% from the stock's previous close.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on ACN. Evercore ISI assumed coverage on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, July 17th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $330.00 target price on the stock. HSBC started coverage on shares of Accenture in a research report on Monday, July 28th. They set a "reduce" rating and a $240.00 price objective for the company. Rothschild Redb cut shares of Accenture from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Accenture to a "moderate sell" rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Finally, Benchmark reissued a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, June 20th. One equities research 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 assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $346.92.

Accenture Stock Down 2.3%

Accenture stock traded down $5.60 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $238.55. The stock had a trading volume of 5,636,222 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,573,657. 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 fifty day moving average price of $264.53 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $294.50. The company has a market capitalization of $149.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.24, a PEG ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 1.29. Accenture has a 12 month low of $236.67 and a 12 month high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.13 earnings per share. Accenture has set its Q4 2025 guidance at EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 12.770-12.890 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Accenture will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of Accenture 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 transaction, the insider owned 5,249 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,482,002.66. The trade was a 3.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $141,170.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,283 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $644,582.22. This represents a 17.97% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 2,954 shares of company stock worth $834,280 over the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Accenture by 2.1% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 65,129,782 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $19,466,641,000 after acquiring an additional 1,315,548 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Accenture by 1.2% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 28,016,605 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $8,373,925,000 after acquiring an additional 326,979 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 1.1% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,042,843 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,182,331,000 after acquiring an additional 147,931 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its stake in Accenture by 0.6% in the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 8,998,826 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $2,689,659,000 after acquiring an additional 56,108 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 63.9% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,953,621 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $2,793,889,000 after buying an additional 3,490,569 shares during 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.