BMO Capital Markets Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Stock Price

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) had its target price decreased by equities research analysts at BMO Capital Markets from $355.00 to $325.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “market perform” rating on the information technology services provider’s stock. BMO Capital Markets’ price objective would suggest a potential upside of 8.10% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other equities analysts have also recently commented on ACN. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $390.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Piper Sandler cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $364.00 to $355.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $372.00 to $340.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, June 12th. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $370.75.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $300.66 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $307.33 and a 200 day simple moving average of $332.81. The company has a market cap of $188.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.94, a P/E/G ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.33. Accenture has a 1 year low of $273.19 and a 1 year high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.13 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Accenture will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,284 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.63, for a total transaction of $643,242.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 9,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,806,442.95. This trade represents a 18.65% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total transaction of $1,003,982.14. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 17,237 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,857,041.86. This represents a 17.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Visionary Wealth Advisors increased its position in Accenture by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. Visionary Wealth Advisors now owns 778 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $274,000 after acquiring an additional 26 shares in the last quarter. Vivaldi Capital Management LP increased its position in Accenture by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Vivaldi Capital Management LP now owns 782 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $292,000 after acquiring an additional 27 shares in the last quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC increased its position in Accenture by 7.5% in the 4th quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 418 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $147,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. United Community Bank increased its position in Accenture by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. United Community Bank now owns 2,069 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $728,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tradition Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Accenture by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,981 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,863,000 after acquiring an additional 30 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.