Ascent Group LLC Sells 2,588 Shares of Accenture PLC $ACN

Ascent Group LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 17.9% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 11,841 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 2,588 shares during the quarter. Ascent Group LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $3,539,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Kelly Lawrence W & Associates Inc. CA bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the first quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Inlight Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the first quarter valued at approximately $32,000. WPG Advisers LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the first quarter valued at approximately $42,000. Atwood & Palmer Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 407.4% during the first quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. now owns 137 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $43,000 after acquiring an additional 110 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cheviot Value Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the first quarter valued at approximately $43,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, September 30th. Wall Street Zen raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. UBS Group reduced their price target on Accenture from $363.00 to $315.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, September 24th. Rothschild & Co Redburn upped their price target on Accenture from $250.00 to $255.00 in a research note on Friday, September 19th. Finally, Mizuho reduced 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. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $300.22.

Accenture Trading Up 0.4%

NYSE ACN opened at $245.39 on Friday. Accenture PLC has a 12 month low of $229.40 and a 12 month high of $398.35. The stock has a market cap of $153.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.20, a P/E/G ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 1.28. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $249.57 and its 200-day moving average price is $283.36. The company has a current ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.98 by $0.05. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.45% and a net margin of 11.02%.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 firm posted $2.66 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.63 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 10th. 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 2.7%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.72%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total transaction of $635,794.95. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 8,109 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,290,387.05. This represents a 21.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $141,170.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,283 shares in the company, valued at approximately $644,582.22. The trade was a 17.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 2,954 shares of company stock valued at $834,280 over the last ninety days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About Accenture

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.