Bailard Inc. Grows Position in Accenture PLC $ACN

Bailard Inc. boosted its position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 10.1% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 63,014 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,756 shares during the period. Bailard Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $18,834,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of ACN. Viawealth LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 2.6% during the 1st quarter. Viawealth LLC now owns 1,307 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $408,000 after buying an additional 33 shares during the last quarter. Aprio Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 2.1% during the first quarter. Aprio Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,640 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $512,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. First National Advisers LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. First National Advisers LLC now owns 9,420 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,939,000 after buying an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. TCTC Holdings LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 14.5% in the 1st quarter. TCTC Holdings LLC now owns 269 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $84,000 after buying an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Texas Bank & Trust Co lifted its position in Accenture by 0.4% in the first quarter. Texas Bank & Trust Co now owns 8,181 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,553,000 after acquiring an additional 35 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Dbs Bank raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 27th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $315.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 16th. Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Guggenheim lowered their price objective on Accenture from $305.00 to $285.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 26th. Finally, Mizuho decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $348.00 to $309.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, September 29th. One investment 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 assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $294.25.

Accenture Trading Down 0.8%

NYSE:ACN opened at $242.57 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $159.72 billion, a PE ratio of 19.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.28. Accenture PLC has a 52-week low of $229.40 and a 52-week high of $398.35. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $245.10 and a 200-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 posted its quarterly earnings data 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. The firm had revenue of $17.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.34 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.45% and a net margin of 11.02%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.66 EPS. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Investors of record on Friday, October 10th will be given a $1.63 dividend. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 10th. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.7%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 53.66%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 5,917 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $246.62, for a total value of $1,459,250.54. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 8,599 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,120,685.38. This represents a 40.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.47, for a total value of $623,675.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,390 shares in the company, valued at approximately $346,763.30. This represents a 64.27% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 33,319 shares of company stock valued at $8,335,225. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.