Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Piper Sandler Analyst Says

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) had its price objective hoisted by Piper Sandler from $395.00 to $422.00 in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the information technology services provider’s stock.

Several other equities analysts also recently commented on ACN. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. TD Cowen raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. UBS Group increased their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Accenture from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $375.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $373.32.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $360.24 on Thursday. Accenture has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $360.63 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $334.07. The company has a market capitalization of $225.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.22 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The firm’s revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.71 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Accenture will post 12.76 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 51.79%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total value of $3,385,440.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. This trade represents a 30.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total transaction of $170,948.50. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. This trade represents a 4.47 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 4.8% in the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 24,693 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $7,492,000 after purchasing an additional 1,142 shares during the period. Brookstone Capital Management boosted its holdings in Accenture by 64.1% during the second quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 19,606 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $6,384,000 after buying an additional 7,658 shares during the last quarter. Gradient Investments LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 3.9% in the 2nd quarter. Gradient Investments LLC now owns 45,497 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $13,804,000 after acquiring an additional 1,723 shares during the last quarter. Raelipskie Partnership boosted its stake in Accenture by 16.8% during the 2nd quarter. Raelipskie Partnership now owns 3,204 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $972,000 after acquiring an additional 460 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Everpar Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the second quarter valued at approximately $269,000. 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.