Westwood Holdings Group Inc. Sells 3,493 Shares of Accenture PLC $ACN

Westwood Holdings Group Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 1.5% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 223,984 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 3,493 shares during the period. Westwood Holdings Group Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $66,947,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brighton Jones LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 36.2% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 18,438 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $6,486,000 after acquiring an additional 4,905 shares in the last quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 38.9% during the 1st quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 1,806 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $563,000 after purchasing an additional 506 shares in the last quarter. Forum Financial Management LP raised its holdings in Accenture by 1.9% in the first quarter. Forum Financial Management LP now owns 4,732 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,477,000 after buying an additional 86 shares during the last quarter. Retirement Planning Co of New England Inc. bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the first quarter worth approximately $518,000. Finally, Creekmur Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 556.3% during the first quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC now owns 735 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $229,000 after buying an additional 623 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $245.29 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $244.66 and its 200 day moving average is $273.22. 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 PLC has a fifty-two week low of $229.40 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The company has a market capitalization of $161.52 billion, a PE ratio of 20.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.28.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.98 by $0.05. Accenture had a net margin of 11.02% and a return on equity of 26.45%. The company 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 firm posted $2.66 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue 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. Sell-side analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 10th were given a $1.63 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 10th. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.7%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 53.66%.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 directly owned 1,390 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $346,763.30. This trade represents a 64.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Manish Sharma sold 6,902 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.01, for a total value of $1,725,569.02. Following the transaction, the insider owned 1,860 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $465,018.60. The trade was a 78.77% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 33,319 shares of company stock valued at $8,335,225 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have commented on the company. Wall Street Zen downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 11th. Rothschild Redb cut Accenture from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Rothschild & Co Redburn upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $250.00 to $255.00 in a research note on Friday, September 19th. HSBC reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $240.00 to $215.00 in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group restated a “hold” rating on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, September 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $294.25.

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.