Hills Bank & Trust Co Buys 577 Shares of Accenture PLC $ACN

Hills Bank & Trust Co raised its stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 16.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,134 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 577 shares during the quarter. Hills Bank & Trust Co’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,236,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Kelly Lawrence W & Associates Inc. CA bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the first quarter worth approximately $31,000. RMG Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the second quarter worth approximately $33,000. WPG Advisers LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the first quarter worth approximately $42,000. Cheviot Value Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the first quarter worth approximately $43,000. Finally, Fiduciary Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the first quarter worth approximately $45,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Guggenheim lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $305.00 to $285.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 26th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, September 30th. Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Wells Fargo & Company assumed coverage on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $251.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Wolfe Research increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $285.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $294.25.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $250.44 on Friday. Accenture PLC has a fifty-two week low of $229.40 and a fifty-two week 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 1.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $164.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.61, a P/E/G ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.28. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $246.87 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $276.03.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $17.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.34 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.66 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue 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 analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 10th will be given a $1.63 dividend. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. This represents a $6.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.6%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 53.66%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, insider Manish Sharma sold 6,902 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.01, for a total transaction of $1,725,569.02. Following the transaction, the insider owned 1,860 shares in the company, valued at approximately $465,018.60. The trade was a 78.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $253.40, for a total transaction of $2,280,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 14,516 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,678,354.40. This trade represents a 38.27% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 27,402 shares of company stock worth $6,875,974 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

About Accenture

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.