Czech National Bank Acquires 5,093 Shares of Accenture PLC $ACN

Czech National Bank boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 3.3% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 158,192 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,093 shares during the period. Czech National Bank’s holdings in Accenture were worth $39,010,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in ACN. Global Retirement Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at about $2,658,000. C WorldWide Group Holding A S grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 35.9% during the second quarter. C WorldWide Group Holding A S now owns 8,148 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,435,000 after buying an additional 2,151 shares during the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp increased its position in shares of Accenture by 7.0% during the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 436,202 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $130,376,000 after acquiring an additional 28,685 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Accenture in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $2,216,850,000. Finally, Redwood Investments LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 6.2% in the 1st quarter. Redwood Investments LLC now owns 22,087 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $6,892,000 after acquiring an additional 1,287 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $273.40 on Thursday. 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 PLC has a 12-month low of $229.40 and a 12-month high of $398.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $180.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 1.26. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $251.83 and a 200 day moving average of $264.30.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.98 by $0.05. Accenture had a net margin of 11.02% and a return on equity of 26.45%. The firm 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 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 14th. Investors of record on Friday, October 10th were paid a dividend of $1.63 per share. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 10th. This represents a $6.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.4%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 53.66%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. HSBC decreased their price target on Accenture from $240.00 to $215.00 in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on Accenture from $250.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 10th. TD Cowen dropped their price target 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. BNP Paribas Exane decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $300.00 to $255.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, September 24th. Finally, Dbs Bank upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 27th. One investment 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 issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $294.04.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief executive officer owned 1,390 shares in the company, valued at approximately $346,763.30. This trade represents a 64.27% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 5,917 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $246.62, for a total transaction of $1,459,250.54. Following the transaction, 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 position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 33,319 shares of company stock valued at $8,335,225. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.