Hardy Reed LLC Has $2.32 Million Stake in Accenture PLC $ACN

Hardy Reed LLC lessened its stake in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 0.7% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,747 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 54 shares during the period. Hardy Reed LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,316,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Kelly Lawrence W & Associates Inc. CA bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 1st quarter worth about $31,000. Inlight Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the first quarter worth approximately $32,000. WPG Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the 1st quarter valued at $42,000. Atwood & Palmer Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 407.4% in the 1st quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. now owns 137 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $43,000 after acquiring an additional 110 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cheviot Value Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the first quarter valued at approximately $43,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total transaction of $57,315.02. Following the sale, the insider owned 5,249 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,482,002.66. This trade represents a 3.72% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total transaction of $635,794.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 8,109 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,290,387.05. This trade represents a 21.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 2,954 shares of company stock valued at $834,280 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Up 1.2%

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $248.18 on Tuesday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $248.99 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $282.84. The company has a market cap of $155.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.43, a P/E/G ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 1.28. Accenture PLC has a 52 week low of $229.40 and a 52 week high of $398.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.66 EPS. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Investors of record on Friday, October 10th will be given a $1.63 dividend. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.6%. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 48.72%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on ACN shares. Rothschild Redb lowered Accenture from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. 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 report on Friday, September 26th. BNP Paribas Exane reduced their price objective on Accenture from $300.00 to $255.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, September 24th. Guggenheim decreased their target price on Accenture from $305.00 to $285.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Finally, Susquehanna cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $330.00 to $270.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, September 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $300.22.

Accenture 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.