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

StockNews.com downgraded shares of Accenture (NYSE:ACN) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report published on Saturday morning.

ACN has been the subject of several other research reports. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $385.00 to $375.00 and set a market perform rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Accenture from $374.00 to $381.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price target on Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $387.00.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $303.16 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $348.33 and its two-hundred day moving average is $342.34. The company has a market capitalization of $203.34 billion, a PE ratio of 27.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.19. Accenture has a 12 month low of $261.68 and a 12 month high of $387.51.

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

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 11th will be paid a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.70%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 46.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value of $1,536,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total value of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.91, for a total transaction of $1,974,437.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 161,581 shares in the company, valued at approximately $51,045,053.71. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 31,639 shares of company stock valued at $10,276,287. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ACN. Chilton Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 180.0% in the 4th quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 70 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. bought a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth about $27,000. Annapolis Financial Services LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 507.7% during the first quarter. Annapolis Financial Services LLC now owns 79 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. bought a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth about $29,000. Finally, Atwood & Palmer Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 214.8% in the first quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. now owns 85 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

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.