Accenture PLC $ACN Shares Purchased by State of Michigan Retirement System

State of Michigan Retirement System boosted its position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 182,738 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 500 shares during the period. State of Michigan Retirement System’s holdings in Accenture were worth $54,619,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Kelly Lawrence W & Associates Inc. CA acquired a new position in Accenture in the 1st quarter valued at about $31,000. RMG Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the 2nd quarter valued at about $33,000. WPG Advisers LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the 1st quarter valued at about $42,000. Cheviot Value Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the 1st quarter valued at about $43,000. Finally, Fiduciary Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the 1st quarter valued at about $45,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $372.00 to $285.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 26th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $315.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, September 24th. Susquehanna dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $330.00 to $270.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 18th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $330.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $325.00 to $270.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $294.25.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.57, for a total value of $2,246,130.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 23,516 shares in the company, valued at $5,868,888.12. This represents a 27.68% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 2,500 shares of the company’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 value 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 approximately $346,763.30. This represents a 64.27% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 27,402 shares of company stock worth $6,875,974 in the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Accenture Stock Up 0.5%

ACN opened at $250.44 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $246.87 and a 200 day moving average price of $276.03. The company has a market cap of $164.91 billion, a PE ratio of 20.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.16 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 1.42 and a current ratio of 1.42.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted 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. The firm had revenue of $17.60 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.34 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.02% and a return on equity of 26.45%. The company’s revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior 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 expect that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

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