Channel Wealth LLC Cuts Position in Accenture PLC $ACN

Channel Wealth LLC reduced its position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 21.8% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 11,107 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 3,098 shares during the period. Channel Wealth LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,739,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Kelly Lawrence W & Associates Inc. CA purchased a new position in Accenture during the 1st quarter valued at about $31,000. Investors Research Corp lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 73.8% during the third quarter. Investors Research Corp now owns 106 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. RMG Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the second quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Heartwood Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the third quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Finally, WPG Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 1st quarter worth approximately $42,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Accenture news, insider Manish Sharma sold 6,902 shares of the business’s 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 completion of the sale, the insider owned 1,860 shares in the company, valued at approximately $465,018.60. The trade was a 78.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 5,917 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $246.62, for a total transaction 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 trade represents a 40.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $273.40 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $251.83 and its 200-day simple moving average is $264.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a current ratio of 1.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $180.03 billion, a PE ratio of 22.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 1.26. Accenture PLC has a fifty-two week low of $229.40 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35.

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 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 analyst estimates of $17.34 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.66 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 14th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 2.4%. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 53.66%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have commented on ACN. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, October 11th. Mizuho decreased their target price on Accenture from $348.00 to $309.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, September 29th. TD Cowen lowered their target price on Accenture from $313.00 to $295.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $330.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lowered 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 investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $294.04.

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.