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

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) was downgraded by research analysts at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report issued on Saturday.

ACN has been the subject of a number of other reports. Mizuho restated a “buy” rating and issued a $398.00 price objective (down from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, March 22nd. TD Cowen decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.00.

Accenture Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $307.93 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $349.66 and its 200-day moving average price is $341.94. The company has a market cap of $206.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.92, a PEG ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 1.19. Accenture has a 12-month low of $261.68 and a 12-month high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.85 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.69 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Accenture will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 851 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.77, for a total transaction of $316,376.27. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 50,737 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,862,494.49. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the insider now owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 851 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.77, for a total transaction of $316,376.27. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 50,737 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,862,494.49. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 32,490 shares of company stock worth $10,592,664 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of 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 during the period. Brave Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Brave Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $361,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. Addison Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 3,181 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,116,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. Searle & CO. grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. Searle & CO. now owns 803 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $282,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. Finally, Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC now owns 1,363 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $478,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.