Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Stock Rating Upgraded by TD Cowen

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) was upgraded by equities research analysts at TD Cowen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report issued on Monday, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm presently has a $400.00 price target on the information technology services provider’s stock, up from their prior price target of $321.00. TD Cowen’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 13.62% from the stock’s current price.

Several other brokerages also recently weighed in on ACN. Bank of America lifted their target price on Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. StockNews.com raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $395.00 to $340.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, Piper Sandler upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $371.18.

Accenture Stock Down 0.4 %

ACN stock opened at $352.04 on Monday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $334.79 and a two-hundred day moving average of $320.07. The stock has a market cap of $220.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.71 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture will post 11.95 EPS for the current year.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total transaction of $472,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,570 shares in the company, valued at $12,149,550. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total transaction of $472,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 38,570 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,149,550. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total value of $1,649,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,964,751.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 21,421 shares of company stock valued at $6,912,635 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. 9258 Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. 9258 Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,308 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $459,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Campbell & CO Investment Adviser LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth about $1,776,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its holdings in Accenture by 19.4% in the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 17,892 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $6,278,000 after buying an additional 2,903 shares during the last quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 43.1% during the fourth quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC now owns 11,444 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,016,000 after buying an additional 3,445 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp lifted its holdings in Accenture by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp now owns 53,155 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $18,653,000 after buying an additional 1,200 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% 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.