Accenture PLC $ACN Shares Sold by CENTRAL TRUST Co

CENTRAL TRUST Co trimmed its position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 4.0% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 9,923 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 414 shares during the period. CENTRAL TRUST Co’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,966,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have issued reports on ACN. Mizuho dropped their price target on Accenture from $348.00 to $309.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, September 29th. Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $330.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 26th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Accenture to a “moderate sell” rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th. UBS Group cut their price objective on Accenture from $363.00 to $315.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, September 24th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded shares of Accenture to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $294.25.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Manish Sharma sold 6,902 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.01, for a total value of $1,725,569.02. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 1,860 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $465,018.60. The trade was a 78.77% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 5,917 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $246.62, for a total value of $1,459,250.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 8,599 shares in the company, valued at $2,120,685.38. This represents a 40.76% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 33,319 shares of company stock worth $8,335,225 in the last three months. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $242.57 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $159.72 billion, a PE ratio of 19.96, a PEG ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a current ratio of 1.42. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $245.10 and its 200 day moving average price is $273.93. Accenture PLC has a 52 week low of $229.40 and a 52 week high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $17.60 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.34 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.66 EPS. The company’s revenue 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 expect that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company 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 represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.7%. 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 payout ratio is currently 53.66%.

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.