Accenture PLC $ACN Shares Sold by Legal & General Group Plc

Legal & General Group Plc lessened its stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 4,721,296 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 64,696 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,411,148,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of ACN. Brighton Jones LLC increased its stake in 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 period. Ignite Planners LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 6.6% during the 1st quarter. Ignite Planners LLC now owns 856 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $257,000 after buying an additional 53 shares during the period. IMA Advisory Services Inc. acquired a new stake in Accenture during the 1st quarter worth approximately $67,000. Wedbush Securities Inc. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 5.0% in the first quarter. Wedbush Securities Inc. now owns 6,367 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,987,000 after acquiring an additional 302 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wakefield Asset Management LLLP purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the first quarter worth $375,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently commented on ACN shares. Rothschild Redb cut Accenture from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on Accenture from $325.00 to $270.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Rothschild & Co Redburn raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $250.00 to $255.00 in a report on Friday, September 19th. Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, September 26th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company assumed coverage on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $251.00 price objective on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $294.25.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $241.02 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $244.03 and a two-hundred day moving average of $271.55. 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 PLC has a 1 year low of $229.40 and a 1 year high of $398.35. The company has a market capitalization of $158.71 billion, a PE ratio of 19.84, a P/E/G ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.28.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.98 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $17.60 billion for 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 firm’s revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.66 earnings per share. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,390 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $346,763.30. This trade represents a 64.27% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Manish Sharma sold 6,902 shares of the business’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 owned 1,860 shares in the company, valued at approximately $465,018.60. The trade was a 78.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last three months, insiders have sold 33,319 shares of company stock valued at $8,335,225. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.