Brokerages Set Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) PT at $387.00

Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) have been given an average recommendation of "Moderate Buy" by the twenty brokerages that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and thirteen have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $387.00.

ACN has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Redburn Atlantic lifted their target price on Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Susquehanna reissued a "neutral" rating and set a $360.00 target price (down from $400.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Accenture from $364.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, March 18th.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN traded up $2.64 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $334.44. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,416,594 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,324,213. The stock has a market cap of $224.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.32, a P/E/G ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 1.19. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $363.40 and a 200-day simple moving average of $341.84. Accenture has a 52 week low of $261.68 and a 52 week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. Accenture's quarterly revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.69 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Accenture will post 12.1 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be given a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.54%. Accenture's payout ratio is currently 46.78%.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.81, for a total value of $1,859,050.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 20,316 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $7,553,691.96. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.81, for a total transaction of $1,859,050.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 20,316 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,553,691.96. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO John F. Walsh sold 8,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.13, for a total value of $2,657,040.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 17,877 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,937,488.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 31,000 shares of company stock valued at $11,146,998 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ACN. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Accenture by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 59,083,383 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $20,732,950,000 after purchasing an additional 649,358 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Accenture by 2.7% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 26,453,884 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $7,560,765,000 after purchasing an additional 704,657 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in Accenture by 14.9% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 16,642,841 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,440,976,000 after buying an additional 2,163,582 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 4.4% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,316,028 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,089,485,000 after buying an additional 565,505 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in Accenture by 7.0% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,034,666 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $3,388,856,000 after buying an additional 720,647 shares during the last quarter. 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.