Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI Sells 18,186 Shares of Accenture PLC $ACN

Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI cut its stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 41.9% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 25,244 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 18,186 shares during the period. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI’s holdings in Accenture were worth $7,545,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. 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 Accenture during the 2nd quarter worth about $33,000. WPG Advisers LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the 1st quarter worth about $42,000. Cheviot Value Management LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture during the first quarter worth approximately $43,000. Finally, Fiduciary Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the first quarter worth approximately $45,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other 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 directly owned 23,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,868,888.12. This represents a 27.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, 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 value of $623,675.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,390 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $346,763.30. This represents a 64.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 33,319 shares of company stock valued at $8,335,225 in the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $315.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, September 16th. TD Cowen reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $313.00 to $295.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 26th. Citigroup upgraded shares of Accenture to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their target price on Accenture from $260.00 to $235.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Finally, Dbs Bank raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $294.25.

Accenture Trading Down 0.9%

ACN opened at $245.29 on Monday. Accenture PLC has a fifty-two week low of $229.40 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $161.52 billion, a PE ratio of 20.19, a P/E/G ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.42 and a quick ratio of 1.42. The company’s 50-day moving average is $244.66 and its 200 day moving average is $272.86.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 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 analyst estimates of $17.34 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.45% and a net margin of 11.02%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.66 EPS. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. As a group, research 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 was paid on Friday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 10th were paid a $1.63 dividend. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 10th. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.7%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 53.66%.

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.