Insider Selling: Accenture (NYSE:ACN) CEO Sells $2,246,130.00 in Stock

Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.57, for a total transaction of $2,246,130.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 23,516 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,868,888.12. This represents a 27.68% 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 link.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $247.93 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $247.27 and a 200-day moving average of $277.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a current ratio of 1.42. The stock has a market cap of $163.25 billion, a PE ratio of 20.41, a P/E/G 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.

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.63 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 10th. This represents a $6.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.6%. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 53.66%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on ACN. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $372.00 to $285.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 26th. HSBC decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $240.00 to $215.00 in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Wolfe Research upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $285.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $330.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $325.00 to $271.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $297.48.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its position 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. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 9.7% during the first quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,585 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $495,000 after acquiring an additional 140 shares in the last quarter. Archford Capital Strategies LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 24.1% during the first quarter. Archford Capital Strategies LLC now owns 7,296 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,277,000 after acquiring an additional 1,419 shares in the last quarter. Field & Main Bank raised its stake in Accenture by 5.1% during the first quarter. Field & Main Bank now owns 5,800 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,810,000 after acquiring an additional 280 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Daymark Wealth Partners LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 0.7% during the first quarter. Daymark Wealth Partners LLC now owns 5,891 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,838,000 after acquiring an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% 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.