Howe & Rusling Inc. Raises Holdings in Accenture PLC $ACN

Howe & Rusling Inc. lifted its position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 75.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 22,660 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 9,744 shares during the quarter. Howe & Rusling Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $6,773,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Kelly Lawrence W & Associates Inc. CA purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the first quarter worth about $31,000. RMG Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $33,000. WPG Advisers LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $42,000. Cheviot Value Management LLC bought a new stake in Accenture during the 1st quarter valued at $43,000. Finally, Fiduciary Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the first quarter worth $45,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company assumed coverage on Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $251.00 price objective on the stock. HSBC decreased their price target on Accenture from $240.00 to $215.00 in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $325.00 to $271.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, September 9th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Accenture in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Rothschild Redb cut shares of Accenture from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $294.25.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.57, for a total transaction of $2,246,130.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 23,516 shares in the company, valued at $5,868,888.12. This trade represents a 27.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.47, for a total transaction of $623,675.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 1,390 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $346,763.30. The trade was a 64.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last three months, insiders sold 33,319 shares of company stock worth $8,335,225. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Stock Up 0.5%

ACN stock opened at $241.22 on Thursday. Accenture PLC has a 1-year low of $229.40 and a 1-year high of $398.35. The stock has a market cap of $158.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a current ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company’s 50 day moving average is $244.09 and its 200 day moving average is $271.77.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 net margin of 11.02% and a return on equity of 26.45%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.66 EPS. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 10th were paid a dividend of $1.63 per share. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.7%. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.