Cetera Investment Advisers Boosts Stake in Accenture PLC $ACN

Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 10.9% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 180,282 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 17,762 shares during the quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers’ holdings in Accenture were worth $35,748,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 66,070,930 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $17,726,831,000 after purchasing an additional 854,361 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 28,264,675 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $7,583,462,000 after purchasing an additional 129,610 shares during the period. Capital International Investors boosted its holdings in Accenture by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 17,471,554 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,687,867,000 after buying an additional 343,420 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Accenture by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,656,436 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,922,212,000 after buying an additional 218,719 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its holdings in Accenture by 5.4% in the fourth quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 10,693,994 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,869,199,000 after buying an additional 546,198 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Oppenheimer set a $201.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research report on Monday, June 8th. Dbs Bank downgraded Accenture from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on Accenture from $210.00 to $185.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 15th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Accenture from $177.00 to $130.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. Finally, Evercore set a $180.00 target price on Accenture in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $192.96.

Accenture Stock Up 6.0%

ACN stock opened at $147.04 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 1.34. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $153.92 and its 200-day simple moving average is $194.99. Accenture PLC has a 12 month low of $118.15 and a 12 month high of $291.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $98.20 billion, a PE ratio of 11.74, a P/E/G ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 1.13.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 18th. The information technology services provider reported $3.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.70 by $0.10. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.47% and a net margin of 10.66%.The firm had revenue of $18.72 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $18.78 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.49 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.780-13.900 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 13.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 9th will be issued a $1.63 dividend. This represents a $6.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 9th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 52.08%.

Accenture declared that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Tuesday, June 23rd that permits the company to repurchase $2.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the information technology services provider to purchase up to 2.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Atsushi Egawa sold 4,872 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.14, for a total value of $863,026.08. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 12,802 shares in the company, valued at $2,267,746.28. This represents a 27.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Accenture

Accenture is a global professional services company that provides a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. The firm works with organizations across industries to design and implement business transformation programs, deploy and manage enterprise technology, optimize operations, and develop customer and digital experiences. Its offerings encompass management and technology consulting, systems integration, application and infrastructure services, cloud migration and managed services, as well as security and analytics capabilities.

The company delivers industry- and function-specific solutions, combining consulting expertise with proprietary tools, platforms and partnerships with major technology vendors.