Accenture PLC $ACN Shares Acquired by Nicholas Company Inc.

Nicholas Company Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 14.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 245,484 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 31,435 shares during the period. Accenture makes up approximately 1.2% of Nicholas Company Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 19th biggest holding. Nicholas Company Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $73,373,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ACN. Kelly Lawrence W & Associates Inc. CA acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the first quarter worth $31,000. RMG Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the second quarter worth $33,000. WPG Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the first quarter worth $42,000. Cheviot Value Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the first quarter worth $43,000. Finally, Fiduciary Wealth Partners LLC acquired 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 and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on ACN shares. Guggenheim decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $305.00 to $285.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Accenture in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Susquehanna decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $330.00 to $270.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 18th. Evercore ISI set a $280.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, September 25th. Finally, Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $330.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report 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 issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $294.25.

Accenture Trading Up 0.5%

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $250.44 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $246.87 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $276.03. The company has a market cap of $164.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.28. Accenture PLC has a fifty-two week low of $229.40 and a fifty-two week 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 issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 earnings per share 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 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.66 earnings per share. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.6%. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 53.66%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 23,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,868,888.12. The trade was a 27.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.47, for a total transaction of $623,675.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,390 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $346,763.30. This represents a 64.27% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 27,402 shares of company stock worth $6,875,974. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

About Accenture

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.