Guggenheim Cuts Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Price Target to $395.00

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) had its price objective cut by stock analysts at Guggenheim from $400.00 to $395.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the information technology services provider’s stock. Guggenheim’s price objective points to a potential upside of 33.05% from the stock’s previous close.

ACN has been the topic of several other reports. Robert W. Baird raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 price target on the stock in a report on Monday. Baird R W upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday. StockNews.com lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Piper Sandler dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $396.00 to $364.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $383.00.

Accenture Stock Down 1.3 %

Shares of ACN traded down $4.03 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $296.88. 932,384 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,766,114. The business has a 50 day moving average of $360.05 and a 200 day moving average of $357.39. The company has a market capitalization of $185.79 billion, a PE ratio of 24.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Accenture has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.77 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total transaction of $3,468,574.71. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. This trade represents a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total value of $91,514.72. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 8,915 shares in the company, valued at $3,516,610.90. This trade represents a 2.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 22,280 shares of company stock valued at $8,316,190. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. increased its position in Accenture by 62.2% during the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the period. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the fourth quarter worth approximately $30,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. Finally, POM Investment Strategies LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 64.2% in the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 34 shares during the period. 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.