Accenture PLC $ACN Shares Bought by M&G PLC

M&G PLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 39.5% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 951,892 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 269,662 shares during the period. Accenture makes up approximately 1.6% of M&G PLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest holding. M&G PLC owned 0.15% of Accenture worth $284,616,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. C WorldWide Group Holding A S raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 35.9% during the 2nd quarter. C WorldWide Group Holding A S now owns 8,148 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,435,000 after buying an additional 2,151 shares during the period. Truist Financial Corp increased its holdings in Accenture by 7.0% in the 2nd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 436,202 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $130,376,000 after acquiring an additional 28,685 shares in the last quarter. Redwood Investments LLC raised its position in Accenture by 6.2% during the first quarter. Redwood Investments LLC now owns 22,087 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $6,892,000 after acquiring an additional 1,287 shares during the period. Lipe & Dalton lifted its holdings in Accenture by 2,087.4% during the first quarter. Lipe & Dalton now owns 5,031 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,570,000 after purchasing an additional 4,801 shares in the last quarter. Finally, PDS Planning Inc grew its position in shares of Accenture by 34.7% in the second quarter. PDS Planning Inc now owns 4,055 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,212,000 after purchasing an additional 1,044 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on ACN shares. Wall Street Zen downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, October 11th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on Accenture from $325.00 to $271.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, September 9th. Wolfe Research increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $285.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Mizuho dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $348.00 to $309.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, September 29th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target 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. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $294.25.

Accenture Trading Down 0.8%

NYSE ACN opened at $242.57 on Wednesday. Accenture PLC has a one year low of $229.40 and a one year high of $398.35. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $245.10 and a 200-day simple moving average of $273.93. The firm has a market cap of $159.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.96, a PEG ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.28. 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 (NYSE:ACN) last posted 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. Accenture had a net margin of 11.02% and a return on equity of 26.45%. The business had revenue of $17.60 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.34 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.66 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.63 per share. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 10th. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.7%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 53.66%.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 5,917 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $246.62, for a total value of $1,459,250.54. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 8,599 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,120,685.38. This represents a 40.76% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.47, for a total transaction of $623,675.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,390 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $346,763.30. The trade was a 64.27% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders sold 33,319 shares of company stock valued at $8,335,225. 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.