Accenture PLC $ACN Shares Purchased by Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC

Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 11,903.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 29,889 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 29,640 shares during the period. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $8,934,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Brighton Jones LLC boosted 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 worth $6,486,000 after purchasing an additional 4,905 shares during the last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp increased its stake in Accenture by 13.0% in the first quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 57,532 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $17,952,000 after purchasing an additional 6,626 shares during the last quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in Accenture by 32.2% during the first quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 337 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $105,000 after buying an additional 82 shares during the period. TCTC Holdings LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 14.5% in the 1st quarter. TCTC Holdings LLC now owns 269 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $84,000 after buying an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Finally, N.E.W. Advisory Services LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the 1st quarter valued at about $68,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Citigroup upgraded shares of Accenture to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. HSBC cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $240.00 to $215.00 in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Accenture in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on Accenture from $325.00 to $270.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 26th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Accenture from $302.00 to $290.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $294.25.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, insider Manish Sharma sold 6,902 shares of the business’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 transaction, the insider owned 1,860 shares in the company, valued at $465,018.60. The trade was a 78.77% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 owned 1,390 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $346,763.30. This represents a 64.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders sold 33,319 shares of company stock worth $8,335,225. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Accenture Trading Down 0.5%

NYSE:ACN opened at $247.91 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $244.81 and its two-hundred day moving average is $269.66. The firm has a market capitalization of $163.24 billion, a PE ratio of 20.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.28. Accenture PLC has a 12 month low of $229.40 and a 12 month high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.42 and a quick ratio of 1.42.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.98 by $0.05. The business 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.66 earnings per share. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. 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. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 10th were paid a dividend of $1.63 per share. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. This represents a $6.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.6%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio 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.