Russell Investments Group Ltd. Purchases 235,232 Shares of Accenture PLC $ACN

Russell Investments Group Ltd. raised its position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 33.9% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 928,480 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 235,232 shares during the quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $277,174,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Viawealth LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 2.6% during the first quarter. Viawealth LLC now owns 1,307 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $408,000 after buying an additional 33 shares during the last quarter. Aprio Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 2.1% in the 1st quarter. Aprio Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,640 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $512,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares during the period. TCTC Holdings LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 14.5% during the first quarter. TCTC Holdings LLC now owns 269 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $84,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Texas Bank & Trust Co grew its holdings in Accenture by 0.4% during the first quarter. Texas Bank & Trust Co now owns 8,181 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,553,000 after purchasing an additional 35 shares during the period. Finally, Norway Savings Bank increased its position in Accenture by 0.9% in the second quarter. Norway Savings Bank now owns 4,123 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,232,000 after buying an additional 36 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Accenture

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 value of $2,246,130.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 23,516 shares in the company, valued at $5,868,888.12. The trade was a 27.68% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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. The trade was a 64.27% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 33,319 shares of company stock valued at $8,335,225. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $249.22 on Wednesday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $244.67 and its two-hundred day moving average is $269.82. Accenture PLC has a 52-week low of $229.40 and a 52-week high of $398.35. The company has a market cap of $164.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.51, 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 quick ratio of 1.42 and a current ratio of 1.42.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued 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 return on equity of 26.45% and a net margin of 11.02%.The firm had revenue of $17.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.34 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.66 earnings per share. The business’s 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. As a group, analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 10th were given a dividend of $1.63 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 10th. 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. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 53.66%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on ACN shares. Mizuho cut their price objective on Accenture from $348.00 to $309.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, September 29th. Evercore ISI set a $280.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $330.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 26th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $325.00 to $270.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 26th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Accenture in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. One 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 issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $294.25.

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.