Accenture PLC $ACN Shares Bought by Independence Bank of Kentucky

Independence Bank of Kentucky grew its stake in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 2.0% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 6,536 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 130 shares during the quarter. Independence Bank of Kentucky’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,954,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Smith Salley Wealth Management increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 3.3% during the 2nd quarter. Smith Salley Wealth Management now owns 56,125 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $16,775,000 after acquiring an additional 1,789 shares during the last quarter. Patton Albertson Miller Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at about $228,000. Sonora Investment Management Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 17.1% during the 2nd quarter. Sonora Investment Management Group LLC now owns 46,078 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $13,772,000 after acquiring an additional 6,733 shares during the last quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH now owns 132,649 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $39,647,000 after acquiring an additional 2,311 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Guyasuta Investment Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 4.2% during the 2nd quarter. Guyasuta Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 48,302 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $14,437,000 after acquiring an additional 1,967 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN stock opened at $239.43 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The firm has a market cap of $149.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.71, a P/E/G ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 1.30. Accenture PLC has a 12-month low of $229.40 and a 12-month high of $398.35. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $253.43 and its 200 day simple moving average is $285.81.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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. The business 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%.The business’s revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.66 EPS. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Investors of record on Friday, October 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.63 per share. 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 dividend yield of 2.7%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.72%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $57,315.02. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 5,249 shares in the company, valued at $1,482,002.66. This represents a 3.72% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total transaction of $141,170.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,283 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $644,582.22. This represents a 17.97% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 2,954 shares of company stock worth $834,280 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the subject of a number of research reports. Evercore ISI set a $280.00 target price on Accenture in a report on Thursday. TD Cowen decreased their target price on Accenture from $313.00 to $295.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Barclays decreased their target price on Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 23rd. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on Accenture from $325.00 to $270.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Finally, Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $330.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $301.91.

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.