Nomura Holdings Inc. Reduces Stock Position in Accenture PLC $ACN

Nomura Holdings Inc. cut its holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 87.2% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 10,957 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 74,675 shares during the period. Nomura Holdings Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $3,275,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Aprio Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Accenture by 2.1% during the first quarter. Aprio Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,640 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $512,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares during the last quarter. Texas Bank & Trust Co lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Texas Bank & Trust Co now owns 8,181 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,553,000 after buying an additional 35 shares during the last quarter. Norway Savings Bank boosted its holdings in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Firethorn Wealth Partners LLC grew its position in shares of 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 last quarter. Finally, Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 0.8% in the second quarter. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC now owns 4,902 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,465,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Accenture stock opened at $275.02 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.42 and a quick ratio of 1.42. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $251.01 and a 200-day simple moving average of $264.55. Accenture PLC has a 12 month low of $229.40 and a 12 month high of $398.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $181.10 billion, a PE ratio of 22.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 1.26.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $17.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.34 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.66 EPS. Accenture’s 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. Equities analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 14th. Investors of record on Friday, October 10th were given a $1.63 dividend. 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 payout ratio is 53.66%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the topic of several research reports. Rothschild Redb lowered Accenture from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price target on Accenture from $372.00 to $285.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 26th. BNP Paribas Exane reduced their price objective on Accenture from $300.00 to $255.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, September 24th. Rothschild & Co Redburn raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $250.00 to $255.00 in a research report on Friday, September 19th. Finally, TD Cowen cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $313.00 to $295.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 26th. One 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’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $294.04.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.47, for a total transaction of $623,675.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,390 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $346,763.30. This represents a 64.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Manish Sharma sold 6,902 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.01, for a total value of $1,725,569.02. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 1,860 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $465,018.60. This trade represents a 78.77% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 33,319 shares of company stock worth $8,335,225. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.