Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Upgraded at Piper Sandler

Piper Sandler upgraded shares of Accenture (NYSE:ACN) from a neutral rating to an overweight rating in a research report released on Thursday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. They currently have $395.00 price objective on the information technology services provider’s stock, up from their prior price objective of $329.00.

A number of other equities research analysts have also issued reports on ACN. Barclays cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $350.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 17th. Piper Sandler Companies restated a neutral rating and issued a $329.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 20th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $375.00 to $350.00 and set a market perform rating for the company in a research note on Friday, June 21st. Mizuho increased their price objective on Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $364.64.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN opened at $349.70 on Thursday. Accenture has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $333.92 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $320.40. The company has a market capitalization of $219.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 1.24.

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.25%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total transaction of $1,649,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total value of $2,696,402.25. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 22,849 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,564,161.45. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total transaction of $1,649,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 21,421 shares of company stock valued at $6,912,635. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. increased its stake in 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 in the last quarter. IronBridge Private Wealth LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. IronBridge Private Wealth LLC now owns 1,235 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $433,000 after buying an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Kolinsky Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Accenture by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Kolinsky Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,888 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,013,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Walled Lake Planning & Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Walled Lake Planning & Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,740 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,120,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Finally, West Paces Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in Accenture by 10.2% during the 1st quarter. West Paces Advisors Inc. now owns 346 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $120,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. 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.