Brokerages Set Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) PT at $294.25

Shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) have earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-eight ratings firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $294.25.

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on ACN shares. Citigroup upgraded Accenture to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. Evercore ISI set a $280.00 price target on Accenture in a research report on Thursday, September 25th. Mizuho decreased their price objective on Accenture from $348.00 to $309.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, September 29th. BNP Paribas Exane dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $300.00 to $255.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, September 24th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $372.00 to $285.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 26th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.57, for a total transaction of $2,246,130.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 23,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,868,888.12. The trade was a 27.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Manish Sharma sold 6,902 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.01, for a total value of $1,725,569.02. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 1,860 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $465,018.60. This trade represents a 78.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 33,319 shares of company stock worth $8,335,225. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Brighton Jones LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 36.2% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 18,438 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $6,486,000 after purchasing an additional 4,905 shares during the period. Brookstone Capital Management boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 32.8% during the 1st quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 4,194 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,309,000 after purchasing an additional 1,036 shares during the period. Financial Counselors Inc. increased its holdings in Accenture by 2.5% in the 1st quarter. Financial Counselors Inc. now owns 32,389 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $10,107,000 after purchasing an additional 776 shares during the last quarter. Interchange Capital Partners LLC raised its position in Accenture by 10.2% in the first quarter. Interchange Capital Partners LLC now owns 928 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $290,000 after purchasing an additional 86 shares during the period. Finally, Alpha Cubed Investments LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 8.5% during the first quarter. Alpha Cubed Investments LLC now owns 699 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $218,000 after buying an additional 55 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Up 1.9%

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $245.87 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $161.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.28. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $245.69 and its 200-day moving average price is $274.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.42 and a quick ratio of 1.42. Accenture has a 1 year low of $229.40 and a 1 year high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.98 by $0.05. Accenture had a net margin of 11.02% and a return on equity of 26.45%. The company had revenue of $17.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.34 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.66 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 10th will be given a $1.63 dividend. This represents a $6.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.7%. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 53.66%.

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.