Stifel Nicolaus Lowers Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Price Target to $340.00

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) had its price objective decreased by Stifel Nicolaus from $395.00 to $340.00 in a research note published on Wednesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Stifel Nicolaus currently has a buy rating on the information technology services provider’s stock.

Other equities analysts have also issued reports about the stock. Susquehanna reiterated a neutral rating and set a $360.00 target price (down from $400.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, March 21st. StockNews.com lowered shares of Accenture from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Saturday, April 27th. TD Cowen lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $294.00 and set a hold rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, June 11th. Guggenheim reiterated a buy rating and set a $395.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, May 24th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $367.50.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $286.71 on Wednesday. Accenture has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $304.35 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $338.71. The firm has a market capitalization of $192.31 billion, a PE ratio of 25.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.07 and a beta of 1.21.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. The business had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.85 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.69 earnings per share. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Accenture will post 12.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 11th were given a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, April 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 46.78%.

Insider Activity

In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total transaction of $1,369,747.96. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 30,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,705,516.24. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 4,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $316.00, for a total transaction of $1,422,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 42,781 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,518,796. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total transaction of $1,369,747.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 30,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,705,516.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 28,083 shares of company stock valued at $8,959,325 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Mosaic Family Wealth Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 5.2% in the 1st quarter. Mosaic Family Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,366 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $473,000 after buying an additional 67 shares during the period. Clear Rock Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. Clear Rock Advisors LLC now owns 6,588 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,283,000 after buying an additional 168 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale boosted its holdings in Accenture by 8.0% in the 1st quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 1,680,610 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $575,480,000 after buying an additional 124,068 shares during the period. Motiv8 Investments LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 22.8% in the 1st quarter. Motiv8 Investments LLC now owns 1,671 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $579,000 after buying an additional 310 shares during the period. Finally, Cetera Advisor Networks LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 1.6% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC now owns 50,872 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $17,633,000 after purchasing an additional 799 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.