Accenture PLC $ACN Shares Bought by Fisher Asset Management LLC

Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 258.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 13,452 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 9,703 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,021,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Aprio Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 2.1% during the 1st quarter. Aprio Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,640 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $512,000 after acquiring an additional 33 shares during the period. Texas Bank & Trust Co lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.4% during the first quarter. Texas Bank & Trust Co now owns 8,181 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,553,000 after purchasing an additional 35 shares during the period. Norway Savings Bank grew its position in Accenture by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter. Norway Savings Bank now owns 4,123 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,232,000 after buying an additional 36 shares during the last quarter. Firethorn Wealth Partners LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 4.4% in the 2nd quarter. Firethorn Wealth Partners LLC now owns 854 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $255,000 after buying an additional 36 shares during the period. Finally, Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC raised its position in Accenture by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC now owns 4,902 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,465,000 after buying an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $269.31 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $247.47 and a 200 day moving average price of $267.46. The company has a market capitalization of $177.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.17, a PEG ratio of 2.59 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 company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.42 and a quick ratio of 1.42.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.98 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $17.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.34 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.45% and a net margin of 11.02%.Accenture’s revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.66 earnings per share. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. 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 given a dividend of $1.63 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 10th. 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 2.4%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 53.66%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on ACN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $302.00 to $290.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Citigroup upgraded Accenture to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 23rd. Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their price target on Accenture from $372.00 to $285.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 26th. Rothschild & Co Redburn lifted their price target on Accenture from $250.00 to $255.00 in a research note on Friday, September 19th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on Accenture from $370.00 to $330.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, September 26th. One 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 given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $294.25.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 5,917 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 8,599 shares in the company, valued at $2,120,685.38. This represents a 40.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Manish Sharma sold 6,902 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.01, for a total value of $1,725,569.02. Following the transaction, the insider owned 1,860 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $465,018.60. This represents a 78.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 33,319 shares of company stock valued at $8,335,225 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture 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.