Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Raised to Buy at StockNews.com

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) was upgraded by equities researchers at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Friday.

ACN has been the subject of several other research reports. Citigroup lowered their price objective on Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Guggenheim initiated coverage on Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $425.00 price objective for the company. Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, Susquehanna reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $360.00 target price (down previously from $400.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $387.00.

Accenture Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of ACN stock traded up $0.88 on Friday, reaching $316.88. The company had a trading volume of 3,381,158 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,390,528. The stock has a market capitalization of $212.54 billion, a PE ratio of 28.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.19. Accenture has a one year low of $261.68 and a one year high of $387.51. The business’s 50-day moving average is $355.21 and its 200 day moving average is $341.83.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.85 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.69 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 3,010 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.80, for a total transaction of $1,119,118.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,193 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,417,957.40. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Manish Sharma sold 1,486 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $370.39, for a total transaction of $550,399.54. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 4,503 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,667,866.17. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 3,010 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.80, for a total value of $1,119,118.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,193 shares in the company, valued at $3,417,957.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 35,500 shares of company stock worth $12,276,123. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 8.2% during the 4th quarter. Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 357 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $125,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares during the period. Hilltop Partners LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. Hilltop Partners LLC now owns 888 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $312,000 after acquiring an additional 27 shares during the period. Brave Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in Accenture by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Brave Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $361,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the period. Addison Advisors LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 3,181 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,116,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the period. Finally, Searle & CO. raised its stake in Accenture by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Searle & CO. now owns 803 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $282,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.