Accenture PLC $ACN Shares Acquired by KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS

KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS grew its position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 3.2% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 248,806 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,800 shares during the period. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS’s holdings in Accenture were worth $74,366,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 5.7% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 63,814,234 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $19,912,594,000 after buying an additional 3,419,577 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 63.9% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,953,621 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,793,889,000 after buying an additional 3,490,569 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 3.5% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 6,766,369 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,111,378,000 after buying an additional 228,939 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.1% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 6,163,393 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,923,225,000 after buying an additional 126,548 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 3.3% in the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,129,053 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,600,470,000 after buying an additional 164,573 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total value of $635,794.95. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 8,109 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,290,387.05. The trade was a 21.73% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $57,315.02. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 5,249 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,482,002.66. The trade was a 3.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 2,954 shares of company stock valued at $834,280. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Up 1.2%

NYSE:ACN opened at $248.18 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $248.99 and a 200-day simple moving average of $282.84. The stock has a market cap of $155.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.43, a P/E/G ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 1.28. 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 quick ratio of 1.46 and a current ratio of 1.42.

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 10th will be issued a $1.63 dividend. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 10th. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.72%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on ACN shares. Rothschild Redb lowered Accenture from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, September 26th. Susquehanna decreased their target price on Accenture from $330.00 to $270.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, September 18th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on Accenture from $355.00 to $315.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 16th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their target price on Accenture from $372.00 to $285.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $300.22.

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.