Norges Bank Acquires Shares of 7,416,943 Accenture PLC $ACN

Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 7,416,943 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,216,850,000. Norges Bank owned 1.18% of Accenture as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Kelly Lawrence W & Associates Inc. CA purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 1st quarter worth approximately $31,000. RMG Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the second quarter valued at approximately $33,000. WPG Advisers LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the first quarter worth $42,000. Cheviot Value Management LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the first quarter valued at $43,000. Finally, Fiduciary Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 1st quarter worth $45,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on ACN. Rothschild & Co Redburn raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $250.00 to $255.00 in a research note on Friday, September 19th. Mizuho lowered their price target on Accenture from $348.00 to $309.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, September 29th. HSBC cut their price objective on Accenture from $240.00 to $215.00 in a research report on Friday, September 26th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on Accenture from $325.00 to $270.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Finally, 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. 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 assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $294.25.

Accenture Stock Performance

Accenture stock opened at $247.91 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $163.24 billion, a PE ratio of 20.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.28. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $244.98 and its 200 day moving average price is $269.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a current ratio of 1.42. Accenture PLC has a one year low of $229.40 and a one year high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $17.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.34 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.66 EPS. Accenture’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, sell-side analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 10th were issued a $1.63 dividend. 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 yield of 2.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 53.66%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.57, for a total value of $2,246,130.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 23,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,868,888.12. This represents a 27.68% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 2,500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.47, for a total transaction of $623,675.00. Following the sale, 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 ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 33,319 shares of company stock valued at $8,335,225. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Accenture Company 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.