Accenture PLC $ACN Stake Increased by Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC

Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 11,903.6% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 29,889 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 29,640 shares during the quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $8,934,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Sanders Capital LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the second quarter worth about $2,637,640,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in Accenture by 63.9% during 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 buying an additional 3,490,569 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 5.7% in the 1st 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 in the last quarter. McElhenny Sheffield Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $308,000. Finally, Flossbach Von Storch SE lifted its stake in Accenture by 48.0% during the second quarter. Flossbach Von Storch SE now owns 2,408,800 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $719,966,000 after purchasing an additional 781,211 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have weighed in on the stock. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $325.00 to $270.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 26th. Evercore ISI set a $280.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price target on Accenture from $372.00 to $285.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Finally, Mizuho cut 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. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $294.25.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $247.91 on Thursday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $244.81 and its two-hundred day moving average is $269.66. The firm has a market capitalization of $163.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.40, a PEG 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. Accenture PLC has a 52 week low of $229.40 and a 52 week high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 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 analyst estimates of $17.34 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.66 EPS. The business’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. Analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 14th. Investors of record on Friday, October 10th were paid a dividend of $1.63 per share. 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 dividend yield of 2.6%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 53.66%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 5,917 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $246.62, for a total value of $1,459,250.54. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 8,599 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,120,685.38. This represents a 40.76% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.47, for a total transaction of $623,675.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,390 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $346,763.30. This trade represents a 64.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 33,319 shares of company stock valued at $8,335,225 over the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.