Brokerages Set Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) Target Price at $294.25

Shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) have received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-eight research firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, eleven have assigned a hold recommendation, fifteen have issued a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $294.25.

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Guggenheim cut their target price on Accenture from $305.00 to $285.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $325.00 to $271.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, September 9th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $315.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 16th. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, September 30th. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $300.00 to $255.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, September 24th.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $245.87 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $161.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.24, a PEG ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.28. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $245.69 and its 200-day simple moving average is $274.79. Accenture has a twelve month low of $229.40 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.98 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $17.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.34 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.45% and a net margin of 11.02%.Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.66 earnings per share. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Accenture will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Investors of record on Friday, October 10th will be given a $1.63 dividend. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 10th. This represents a $6.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.7%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 53.66%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.47, for a total value of $623,675.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 1,390 shares in the company, valued at $346,763.30. This represents a 64.27% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.57, for a total transaction of $2,246,130.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 23,516 shares in the company, valued at $5,868,888.12. The trade was a 27.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 33,319 shares of company stock valued at $8,335,225 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Mcrae Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in Accenture by 59.2% during the 3rd quarter. Mcrae Capital Management Inc. now owns 44,545 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $10,985,000 after acquiring an additional 16,560 shares during the period. NewEdge Wealth LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 585.0% during the third quarter. NewEdge Wealth LLC now owns 96,447 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $23,901,000 after purchasing an additional 82,368 shares during the last quarter. Signet Financial Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 14.6% during the third quarter. Signet Financial Management LLC now owns 2,199 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $542,000 after purchasing an additional 280 shares during the period. Alberta Investment Management Corp purchased a new position in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at $7,003,000. Finally, Studio Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 3.3% in the 3rd quarter. Studio Investment Management LLC now owns 1,476 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $364,000 after buying an additional 47 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.