StockNews.com Downgrades Accenture (NYSE:ACN) to Hold

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) was downgraded by stock analysts at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued on Friday.

Several other analysts have also issued reports on ACN. Susquehanna reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $360.00 target price (down previously from $400.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday. TD Cowen cut their target price on Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Mizuho reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $398.00 price target (down from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, Redburn Atlantic raised their target price on Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $382.77.

Accenture Trading Down 2.2 %

NYSE ACN traded down $7.54 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $337.49. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 5,899,333 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,197,268. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $370.57 and its 200 day simple moving average is $339.99. Accenture has a twelve month low of $259.30 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $211.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.28, a PEG ratio of 3.53 and a beta of 1.20.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. Accenture had a net margin of 10.65% and a return on equity of 29.08%. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.85 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.69 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Accenture will post 12.2 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 2,070 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $370.32, for a total transaction of $766,562.40. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 47,110 shares in the company, valued at $17,445,775.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 2,070 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $370.32, for a total value of $766,562.40. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 47,110 shares in the company, valued at $17,445,775.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.83, for a total transaction of $1,611,139.39. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 34,795 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,937,824.85. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 26,000 shares of company stock valued at $9,549,498 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Norges Bank bought a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth about $1,850,765,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 101,214.0% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,040,402 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,078,141,000 after purchasing an additional 4,036,414 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 14.9% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 16,642,841 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,440,976,000 after purchasing an additional 2,163,582 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its stake in Accenture by 20.2% in the fourth quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,879,123 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,063,048,000 after purchasing an additional 989,157 shares during the period. Finally, DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main raised its holdings in Accenture by 100.0% in the fourth quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 1,751,531 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $614,615,000 after purchasing an additional 875,723 shares in the last quarter. 70.42% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.