The Goldman Sachs Group Lowers Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Price Target to $330.00

Key Points

• The Goldman Sachs Group has reduced its price target for Accenture from $370.00 to $330.00, maintaining a "buy" rating, suggesting a potential upside of 37.39% from the current stock price.
• Accenture's earnings per share for the last quarter exceeded analyst expectations, reporting $3.03 compared to the forecast of $2.98, with revenue also surpassing estimates at $17.60 billion.
• Recent insider trading activity includes significant stock sales by CEO Julie Spellman Sweet and insider Angela Beatty, reflecting a decrease in their ownership percentages.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) had its price target lowered by equities research analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group from $370.00 to $330.00 in a note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a "buy" rating on the information technology services provider's stock. The Goldman Sachs Group's price objective suggests a potential upside of 37.39% from the company's current price.

Other equities research analysts have also issued reports about the company. Wolfe Research decreased their target price on Accenture from $290.00 to $285.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Benchmark reissued a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, June 20th. Rothschild & Co Redburn boosted their price target on Accenture from $250.00 to $255.00 in a research report on Friday, September 19th. Susquehanna reduced their price target on Accenture from $330.00 to $270.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 18th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $330.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Friday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $305.50.

Accenture Stock Up 3.3%

NYSE ACN traded up $7.63 on Friday, reaching $240.19. 3,730,194 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,755,018. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a current ratio of 1.46. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $254.28 and a 200-day moving average price of $286.89. The company has a market cap of $150.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.10, a PEG ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 1.29. Accenture has a 12 month low of $229.40 and a 12 month high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.98 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $17.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.34 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.55% and a net margin of 11.61%.Accenture's revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.66 EPS. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast 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 company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $57,315.02. Following the sale, the insider owned 5,249 shares in the company, valued at $1,482,002.66. This represents a 3.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total value of $635,794.95. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 8,109 shares in the company, valued at $2,290,387.05. The trade was a 21.73% 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 quarter. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Caldwell Trust Co purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the second quarter worth about $2,952,000. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 5.8% in the 2nd quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC now owns 8,665 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $2,590,000 after purchasing an additional 474 shares during the period. Osaic Holdings Inc. raised its holdings in Accenture by 41.7% in the 2nd quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc. now owns 101,585 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $30,650,000 after purchasing an additional 29,914 shares during the period. Total Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture in the 2nd quarter worth about $50,000. Finally, MASTERINVEST Kapitalanlage GmbH acquired a new position in Accenture in the 2nd quarter worth about $1,244,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

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.

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