Copeland Capital Management LLC Lowers Holdings in Accenture PLC $ACN

Copeland Capital Management LLC lessened its stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 4.1% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 2,494 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 106 shares during the quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $746,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Viawealth LLC raised its position in shares of Accenture by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. Viawealth LLC now owns 1,307 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $408,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares during the last quarter. Aprio Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Accenture by 2.1% in the 1st quarter. Aprio Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,640 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $512,000 after buying an additional 33 shares during the last quarter. First National Advisers LLC raised its position in Accenture by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. First National Advisers LLC now owns 9,420 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,939,000 after buying an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. TCTC Holdings LLC raised its position in Accenture by 14.5% in the 1st quarter. TCTC Holdings LLC now owns 269 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $84,000 after buying an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Spectrum Asset Management Inc. NB CA raised its position in Accenture by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. Spectrum Asset Management Inc. NB CA now owns 11,777 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,675,000 after buying an additional 35 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total transaction of $141,170.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,283 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $644,582.22. This represents a 17.97% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $57,315.02. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 5,249 shares in the company, valued at $1,482,002.66. This trade represents a 3.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 2,954 shares of company stock valued at $834,280 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on ACN. HSBC decreased their target price on Accenture from $240.00 to $215.00 in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Mizuho decreased their target price on Accenture from $348.00 to $309.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “hold” rating on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday. Barclays cut their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price target on Accenture from $325.00 to $271.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, September 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $300.22.

Accenture Trading Up 0.4%

ACN stock opened at $245.39 on Friday. Accenture PLC has a 1-year low of $229.40 and a 1-year high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.42 and a quick ratio of 1.46. The company has a market capitalization of $153.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.20, a PEG ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 1.28. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $249.57 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $283.65.

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.63 per share. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 10th. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.7%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 48.72%.

Accenture 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.