Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Downgraded to Hold at StockNews.com

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

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on ACN. BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on Accenture from $385.00 to $375.00 and set a market perform rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Guggenheim assumed coverage on Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. They set a buy rating and a $425.00 price target for the company. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $387.00.

Accenture Trading Down 1.6 %

ACN opened at $303.16 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $348.33 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $342.34. Accenture has a 1-year low of $261.68 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The company has a market cap of $203.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.19.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.11. The firm 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 for the quarter was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.69 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Accenture will post 12.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 11th will be given a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.70%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 46.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 13,699 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,208,606.78. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Accenture news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’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 sale, the insider now owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Manish Sharma sold 1,486 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $370.39, for a total value of $550,399.54. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 4,503 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,667,866.17. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 31,639 shares of company stock valued at $10,276,287. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

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