Is Accenture (ACN) Stock Worth Buying After Wall Street Cuts Targets?

TLDR

• ACN rose 1.65% on Friday to $170.28, snapping a five-day losing streak, though it remains 46% below its 52-week high of $317.31
• Vontobel Holding lifted its stake in ACN by 36.8% in Q4, adding 43,637 shares worth around $43.5 million
• CEO Atsushi Egawa sold 4,872 shares at $177.14 on April 30 under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan
• Truist downgraded ACN from Buy to Hold and cut its price target from $260 to $210; several others also trimmed targets
• Accenture beat Q3 earnings estimates with EPS of $2.93 vs $2.84 expected, on revenue of $18.04 billion

Accenture (ACN) stock rose 1.65% on Friday, closing at $170.28 and ending a five-day losing streak. The broader market was also up, with the S&P 500 gaining 0.50% and the Dow adding 0.70%.

Accenture plc, ACN

Despite the Friday bounce, ACN is still sitting 46% below its 52-week high of $317.31. That gap tells you a lot about where sentiment has drifted over the past year.

Trading volume came in at 4.0 million, below the 50-day average of 5.4 million, suggesting Friday’s move wasn’t driven by a surge of conviction.

ACN opened at $169.95 on Friday. The stock has a 12-month low of $155.82 and a market cap of around $113 billion. Its 50-day moving average sits at $181.79 and the 200-day at $221.83 — both well above where the stock is trading.

Institutional Buying and Insider Selling

Vontobel Holding lifted its stake in ACN by 36.8% in Q4, adding 43,637 shares. The fund now holds 162,315 shares valued at roughly $43.5 million.

Other big names also adjusted positions. Vanguard added 854,361 shares in Q4, bringing its total to over 66 million. Massachusetts Financial Services lifted its holding by 5.4%, adding 546,198 shares. Overall, institutional investors own 75.14% of ACN stock.

On the insider side, CEO Atsushi Egawa sold 4,872 shares on April 30 at an average price of $177.14, totaling about $863,000. The sale was made under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan, and Egawa now holds 12,802 shares.

The sale reduced his ownership stake by 27.57%, which is worth keeping an eye on even if the mechanism was planned.

Analysts Pull Back on Price Targets

Wall Street has been trimming its expectations on ACN. Truist was the most vocal, cutting its rating from Buy to Hold and slashing its target from $260 to $210 on June 1.

Wells Fargo lowered its target from $275 to $248 but kept an Overweight rating. Morgan Stanley cut from $320 to $240, also maintaining Overweight. Royal Bank of Canada trimmed from $295 to $253 with an Outperform rating. BMO Capital Markets dropped from $300 to $230 with a Market Perform.

Despite the cuts, the consensus across 27 analysts remains a Moderate Buy, with an average target price of $259.89 — well above the current trading price.

Earnings Beat, Dividend Paid

ACN last reported quarterly earnings on March 20. It posted EPS of $2.93, beating the $2.84 consensus estimate. Revenue came in at $18.04 billion, topping the $17.80 billion estimate, and was up 7.8% year-over-year.

The company paid a quarterly dividend of $1.63 per share on May 15. That works out to $6.52 annualized, representing a yield of 3.8% at current prices. The payout ratio stands at 53.40%.

Analysts currently expect full-year EPS of $13.87 for the fiscal year.

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