Accenture PLC $ACN Shares Bought by Money Concepts Capital Corp

Money Concepts Capital Corp raised its holdings in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 45.5% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 12,957 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 4,049 shares during the quarter. Money Concepts Capital Corp’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,569,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Teacher Retirement System of Texas raised its stake in Accenture by 27.7% during the 4th quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 282,340 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $75,752,000 after acquiring an additional 61,314 shares in the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 197.2% in the fourth quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 141,484 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $37,960,000 after acquiring an additional 93,880 shares in the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 36.6% during the fourth quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 557,516 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $149,582,000 after purchasing an additional 149,357 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Accenture by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 66,070,930 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $17,726,831,000 after purchasing an additional 854,361 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 12.0% in the 4th quarter. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd now owns 335,314 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $89,965,000 after purchasing an additional 36,037 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently issued reports on ACN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Accenture from $247.00 to $201.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 8th. HSBC decreased their price objective on Accenture from $220.00 to $210.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 14th. Argus cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $220.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 22nd. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $136.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $193.19.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Atsushi Egawa sold 4,872 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.14, for a total value of $863,026.08. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 12,802 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,267,746.28. This represents a 27.57% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Accenture stock traded down $3.87 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $135.19. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 7,631,871 shares, compared to its average volume of 12,515,054. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 1.34. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $160.28 and its 200 day simple moving average is $203.94. Accenture PLC has a fifty-two week low of $118.15 and a fifty-two week high of $291.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $90.28 billion, a PE ratio of 10.80, a P/E/G ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.13.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, June 18th. The information technology services provider reported $3.80 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.70 by $0.10. Accenture had a net margin of 10.66% and a return on equity of 26.47%. The firm had revenue of $18.72 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $18.78 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.49 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.780-13.900 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 13.85 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 9th will be paid a $1.63 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 9th. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.8%. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 52.08%.

Accenture announced that its board has initiated a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, June 23rd that allows the company to buyback $2.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the information technology services provider to buy up to 2.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Accenture Profile

Accenture is a global professional services company that provides a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. The firm works with organizations across industries to design and implement business transformation programs, deploy and manage enterprise technology, optimize operations, and develop customer and digital experiences. Its offerings encompass management and technology consulting, systems integration, application and infrastructure services, cloud migration and managed services, as well as security and analytics capabilities.

The company delivers industry- and function-specific solutions, combining consulting expertise with proprietary tools, platforms and partnerships with major technology vendors.