Accenture plc [ACN] is 4.89% higher this YTD. Is it still time to buy?

Accenture plc [NYSE: ACN] closed the trading session at $279.90 on 04/19/23. The day’s price range saw the stock hit a low of $277.51, while the highest price level was $280.00. The company report on April 14, 2023 at 6:39 AM that Accenture Appoints Alan Jope, Chief Executive Officer of Unilever, to Board of Directors.

Accenture (NYSE: ACN) announced that Alan Jope has been appointed to the company’s Board of Directors, effective today. Mr. Jope, 59, is the chief executive officer of Unilever (LSE: ULVR).

Mr. Jope will be subject to re-appointment at the next Accenture plc annual general meeting of shareholders. He has been appointed to serve on the board’s Nominating, Governance & Sustainability Committee.

The stocks have a year to date performance of 4.89 percent and weekly performance of -1.36 percent. The stock has been moved at 6.74 percent over the last six months. The stock has performed 10.83 percent around the most recent 30 days and changed 0.72 percent over the most recent 3-months.

If compared to the average trading volume of 2.46M shares, ACN reached to a volume of 2204619 in the most recent trading day, which is why market watchdogs consider the stock to be active.

Here’s what leading stock market gurus have to say about Accenture plc [ACN]:

Based on careful and fact-backed analyses by Wall Street experts, the current consensus on the target price for ACN shares is $311.80 per share. Analysis on target price and performance of stocks is usually carefully studied by market experts, and the current Wall Street consensus on ACN stock is a recommendation set at 2.10. This rating represents a strong Buy recommendation, on the scale from 1 to 5, where 5 would mean strong sell, 4 represents Sell, 3 is Hold, and 2 indicates Buy.

Edward Jones have made an estimate for Accenture plc shares, keeping their opinion on the stock as Buy, with their previous recommendation back on April 05, 2023. While these analysts kept the previous recommendation, Wells Fargo raised their target price to Equal Weight. The new note on the price target was released on January 30, 2023, representing the official price target for Accenture plc stock. Previously, the target price had yet another raise to $268, while Piper Sandler analysts kept a Underweight rating on ACN stock.

The Average True Range (ATR) for Accenture plc is set at 5.27, with the Price to Sales ratio for ACN stock in the period of the last 12 months amounting to 3.00. The Price to Book ratio for the last quarter was 7.43, with the Price to Cash per share for the same quarter was set at 9.22. Price to Free Cash Flow for ACN in the course of the last twelve months was 29.31 with Quick ratio for the last quarter at 1.30.

ACN stock trade performance evaluation

Accenture plc [ACN] fell into the red zone at the end of the last week, falling into a negative trend and dropping by -1.36. With this latest performance, ACN shares gained by 10.83% in over the last four-week period, additionally plugging by 6.74% over the last 6 months – not to mention a drop of -10.75% in the past year of trading.

Overbought and oversold stocks can be easily traced with the Relative Strength Index (RSI), where an RSI result of over 70 would be overbought, and any rate below 30 would indicate oversold conditions. An RSI rate of 50 would represent a neutral market momentum. The current RSI for ACN stock in for the last two-week period is set at 54.85, with the RSI for the last a single of trading hit 52.75, and the three-weeks RSI is set at 54.21 for Accenture plc [ACN]. The present Moving Average for the last 50 days of trading for this stock 272.51, while it was recorded at 280.87 for the last single week of trading, and 279.67 for the last 200 days.

Accenture plc [ACN]: An insightful look at the core fundamentals

Operating Margin for any stock indicates how profitable investing would be, and Accenture plc [ACN] shares currently have an operating margin of +15.36 and a Gross Margin at +32.14. Accenture plc’s Net Margin is presently recorded at +11.17.

Return on Total Capital for ACN is now 38.08, given the latest momentum, and Return on Invested Capital for the company is 29.27. Return on Equity for this stock inclined to 33.04, with Return on Assets sitting at 15.21. When it comes to the capital structure of this company, Accenture plc [ACN] has a Total Debt to Total Equity ratio set at 15.04. Additionally, ACN Total Debt to Total Capital is recorded at 13.08, with Total Debt to Total Assets ending up at 7.04. Long-Term Debt to Equity for the company is recorded at 11.80, with the Long-Term Debt to Total Capital now at 10.26.

Reflecting on the efficiency of the workforce at the company, Accenture plc [ACN] managed to generate an average of $9,538 per employee. Receivables Turnover for the company is 5.73 with a Total Asset Turnover recorded at a value of 1.36.Accenture plc’s liquidity data is similarly interesting compelling, with a Quick Ratio of 1.30 and a Current Ratio set at 1.30.

Earnings per share (EPS) analysis for Accenture plc [ACN] stock

The progress of the company may be observed through the prism of EPS growth rate, while Wall Street analysts are focusing on predicting the 5-year EPS growth rate for ACN. When it comes to the mentioned value, analysts are expecting to see the 5-year EPS growth rate for Accenture plc go to 9.00%.

Accenture plc [ACN]: Insider Ownership positions

There are presently around $131,816 million, or 75.40% of ACN stock, in the hands of institutional investors. The top three institutional holders of ACN stocks are: VANGUARD GROUP INC with ownership of 57,794,521, which is approximately -1.161% of the company’s market cap and around 0.10% of the total institutional ownership; BLACKROCK INC., holding 47,401,182 shares of the stock with an approximate value of $13.27 billion in ACN stocks shares; and STATE STREET CORP, currently with $7.21 billion in ACN stock with ownership of nearly -0.786% of the company’s market capitalization.

Positions in Accenture plc stocks held by institutional investors increased at the end of Thursday and at the time of the Thursday reporting period, where 1,002 institutional holders increased their position in Accenture plc [NYSE:ACN] by around 19,838,904 shares. Additionally, 860 investors decreased positions by around 22,801,139 shares, while 296 investors held positions by with 428,300,624 shares. The mentioned changes placed institutional holdings at 470,940,667 shares, according to the latest SEC report filing. ACN stock had 204 new institutional investments in for a total of 2,074,705 shares, while 102 institutional investors sold positions of 4,191,674 shares during the same period.