Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Upgraded to “Strong-Buy” at Baird R W

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Baird R W from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report released on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other analysts have also commented on the company. Wolfe Research raised Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. StockNews.com lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on Accenture from $429.00 to $396.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $388.04.

Accenture Stock Up 2.3 %

ACN opened at $326.25 on Monday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $362.51 and its two-hundred day moving average is $358.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The company has a market cap of $204.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.37, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.27 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Accenture will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,497 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.48, for a total transaction of $885,136.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 28,866 shares in the company, valued at $10,232,419.68. This trade represents a 7.96 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the sale, the insider now owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Swedbank AB grew its stake in Accenture by 16.6% during the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,551,679 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $901,967,000 after purchasing an additional 363,401 shares in the last quarter. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Pathstone Holdings LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC now owns 94,866 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $33,533,000 after acquiring an additional 2,307 shares in the last quarter. Caprock Group LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 12.5% in the 3rd quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 97,059 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $34,309,000 after acquiring an additional 10,750 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Meeder Asset Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 24.8% in the 3rd quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 378 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $134,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

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.