Accenture PLC $ACN Shares Acquired by M&G PLC

M&G PLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 39.5% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 951,892 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 269,662 shares during the period. Accenture accounts for 1.6% of M&G PLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th largest holding. M&G PLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $284,616,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Forsta AP Fonden lifted its position in Accenture by 9.8% during the 2nd quarter. Forsta AP Fonden now owns 175,429 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $52,434,000 after acquiring an additional 15,700 shares during the period. KBC Group NV raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 55.2% during the second quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 347,904 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $103,985,000 after purchasing an additional 123,791 shares during the last quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 16.5% during the second quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 217,772 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $65,090,000 after purchasing an additional 30,802 shares during the period. Nan Fung Trinity HK Ltd. purchased a new position in Accenture in the 2nd quarter valued at $17,097,000. Finally, Fairbanks Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in Accenture by 7.0% in the 2nd quarter. Fairbanks Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,732 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,414,000 after buying an additional 310 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Manish Sharma sold 6,902 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.01, for a total transaction of $1,725,569.02. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 1,860 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $465,018.60. The trade was a 78.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 22nd. The stock was 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 directly owned 23,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,868,888.12. The trade was a 27.68% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 33,319 shares of company stock worth $8,335,225. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the topic of several analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Accenture in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their target price on Accenture from $372.00 to $285.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $330.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 26th. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $313.00 to $295.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Finally, Citigroup raised shares of Accenture to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. One 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $294.25.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $242.57 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $159.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.96, a P/E/G ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.28. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $245.10 and a 200-day simple moving average of $273.93. 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 1.42, a current ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted 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. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.45% and a net margin of 11.02%.The company had revenue of $17.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.34 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.66 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.63 per share. This represents a $6.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.7%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 10th. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. Accenture’s payout ratio 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.