Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Upgraded by Wolfe Research to Outperform Rating

Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Accenture (NYSE:ACN) from a peer perform rating to an outperform rating in a report issued on Wednesday morning, Marketbeat reports. They currently have $425.00 target price on the information technology services provider’s stock.

Several other brokerages also recently issued reports on ACN. Guggenheim upped their price target on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. UBS Group lifted their price target on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Bank of America raised their target price on Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Susquehanna boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $422.00 to $429.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $385.04.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN stock opened at $357.74 on Wednesday. Accenture has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $357.48 and its 200 day simple moving average is $343.37. The company has a market cap of $223.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $3.27 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Accenture will post 12.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.65%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 49.66%.

Accenture declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 673 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $372.18, for a total value of $250,477.14. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,102,817. This represents a 10.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares in the company, valued at $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 36,673 shares of company stock worth $13,507,099 in the last ninety days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the second quarter valued at about $28,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 400.2% during the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 19,863 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $6,023,000 after acquiring an additional 15,892 shares during the period. Vaughan David Investments LLC IL grew its position in Accenture by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. Vaughan David Investments LLC IL now owns 129,557 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $39,309,000 after acquiring an additional 2,342 shares during the last quarter. AGF Management Ltd. lifted its position in Accenture by 8.2% in the second quarter. AGF Management Ltd. now owns 388,597 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $117,904,000 after purchasing an additional 29,307 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Greenwood Gearhart Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 3.6% during the second quarter. Greenwood Gearhart Inc. now owns 30,895 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $9,374,000 after purchasing an additional 1,071 shares during the period. 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.