KBC Group NV Increases Stake in Accenture PLC $ACN

KBC Group NV increased its position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 55.2% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 347,904 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 123,791 shares during the period. KBC Group NV’s holdings in Accenture were worth $103,985,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 36.2% during the 4th 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 during the period. Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc. purchased a new stake in Accenture in the first quarter worth approximately $264,000. Edgestream Partners L.P. grew its position in Accenture by 302.4% in the 1st quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 11,654 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,637,000 after purchasing an additional 8,758 shares during the period. Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 1st quarter valued at $1,548,000. Finally, Lord & Richards Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 1st quarter worth $260,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Mizuho cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $348.00 to $309.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, September 29th. Guggenheim lowered their price objective on Accenture from $305.00 to $285.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 26th. HSBC decreased their target price on Accenture from $240.00 to $215.00 in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $260.00 to $235.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 26th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $325.00 to $271.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, September 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $294.25.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 5,917 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $246.62, for a total transaction of $1,459,250.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 8,599 shares in the company, valued at $2,120,685.38. The trade was a 40.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief executive officer directly 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. Insiders sold a total of 33,319 shares of company stock worth $8,335,225 over the last three months. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN stock opened at $242.57 on Wednesday. Accenture PLC has a 52 week low of $229.40 and a 52 week high of $398.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $159.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $245.10 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $273.93. The company has a quick ratio of 1.42, a current ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $17.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.34 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.66 EPS. 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. Analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Investors of record on Friday, October 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.63 per share. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.7%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 10th. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 53.66%.

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.