Howe & Rusling Inc. Acquires 9,744 Shares of Accenture PLC $ACN

Howe & Rusling Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 75.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 22,660 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 9,744 shares during the period. Howe & Rusling Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $6,773,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Accenture by 2.1% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 65,129,782 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $19,466,641,000 after buying an additional 1,315,548 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 1.1% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,042,843 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,182,331,000 after acquiring an additional 147,931 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings in Accenture by 0.6% in the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 8,998,826 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,689,659,000 after purchasing an additional 56,108 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in Accenture by 63.9% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,953,621 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,793,889,000 after purchasing an additional 3,490,569 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sanders Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the second quarter valued at about $2,637,640,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $241.22 on Thursday. 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 firm has a 50-day moving average of $244.09 and a 200-day moving average of $271.77. Accenture PLC has a one year low of $229.40 and a one year high of $398.35. The company has a market cap of $158.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.85, a P/E/G ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.28.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.98 by $0.05. Accenture had a net margin of 11.02% and a return on equity of 26.45%. The business had revenue of $17.60 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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. Equities research analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on ACN. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on Accenture from $370.00 to $330.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, September 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on Accenture from $302.00 to $290.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 26th. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $330.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $315.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, September 16th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $372.00 to $285.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 26th. One 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 given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $294.25.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.47, for a total value of $623,675.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,390 shares in the company, valued at $346,763.30. This represents a 64.27% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Manish Sharma sold 6,902 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the insider directly owned 1,860 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $465,018.60. This represents a 78.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 33,319 shares of company stock valued at $8,335,225. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.