Accenture PLC $ACN Shares Sold by Johnson Financial Group Inc.

Johnson Financial Group Inc. lowered its stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 8.5% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 20,992 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 1,961 shares during the quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $6,274,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, insider Manish Sharma sold 6,902 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 22nd. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at $465,018.60. This represents a 78.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 5,917 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $246.62, for a total value of $1,459,250.54. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 8,599 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,120,685.38. This represents a 40.76% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 33,319 shares of company stock valued at $8,335,225. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company started coverage on Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $251.00 target price on the stock. Mizuho decreased their price target on Accenture from $348.00 to $309.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, September 29th. Rothschild & Co Redburn increased their price objective on Accenture from $250.00 to $255.00 in a research report on Friday, September 19th. HSBC decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $240.00 to $215.00 in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $330.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 26th. One research 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 issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $294.25.

Accenture Trading Down 0.5%

Shares of ACN stock opened at $247.91 on Thursday. Accenture PLC has a fifty-two week low of $229.40 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.42, a current ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $244.81 and a 200-day simple moving average of $269.66. The stock has a market cap of $163.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.40, 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 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.98 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $17.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.34 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.02% and a return on equity of 26.45%. The firm’s revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.66 EPS. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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 was Friday, October 10th. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.6%. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 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.