Groupe la Francaise Sells 60,011 Shares of Accenture PLC $ACN

Groupe la Francaise reduced its holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 32.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 125,281 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 60,011 shares during the quarter. Groupe la Francaise’s holdings in Accenture were worth $38,402,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of ACN. Isthmus Partners LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter. Isthmus Partners LLC now owns 34,596 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $10,340,000 after buying an additional 362 shares during the period. Blueshift Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture by 196.2% during the second quarter. Blueshift Asset Management LLC now owns 2,521 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $754,000 after acquiring an additional 1,670 shares in the last quarter. Westerkirk Capital Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the second quarter worth $5,349,000. Boston Family Office LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 10.5% in the 2nd quarter. Boston Family Office LLC now owns 5,059 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,512,000 after acquiring an additional 479 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Global Frontier Investments LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the 2nd quarter worth $4,483,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the topic of several recent research reports. Rothschild Redb downgraded Accenture from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. Susquehanna dropped their target price on Accenture from $330.00 to $270.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, September 18th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $330.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, September 26th. HSBC lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $240.00 to $215.00 in a report on Friday, September 26th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $302.00 to $290.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $294.25.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE:ACN opened at $261.49 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $172.18 billion, a PE ratio of 21.52, a P/E/G ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.26. Accenture PLC has a 1-year low of $229.40 and a 1-year high of $398.35. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $246.05 and a 200 day simple moving average of $267.41. The company has a current ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 net margin of 11.02% and a return on equity of 26.45%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.66 earnings per share. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. On average, research analysts expect 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 was paid on Friday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 10th were given a dividend of $1.63 per share. This represents a $6.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.5%. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 53.66%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, 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 value of $623,675.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,390 shares in the company, valued at $346,763.30. The trade was a 64.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Manish Sharma sold 6,902 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.01, for a total transaction of $1,725,569.02. Following the sale, the insider owned 1,860 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $465,018.60. This represents a 78.77% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 33,319 shares of company stock worth $8,335,225 over the last 90 days. 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.