Accenture PLC $ACN Position Increased by Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC

Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC increased its position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 2.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 174,648 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,507 shares during the period. Accenture makes up approximately 1.8% of Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 10th largest position. Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $52,200,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Truist Financial Corp boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 7.0% in 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 buying an additional 28,685 shares in the last quarter. Redwood Investments LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 6.2% in the first 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 during the period. Lipe & Dalton boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 2,087.4% during the 1st quarter. Lipe & Dalton now owns 5,031 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,570,000 after purchasing an additional 4,801 shares in the last quarter. PDS Planning Inc lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 34.7% in the second quarter. PDS Planning Inc now owns 4,055 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,212,000 after purchasing an additional 1,044 shares during the period. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its position in Accenture by 6.4% during the second quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 70,887 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $21,187,000 after buying an additional 4,281 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have commented on the company. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Accenture from $325.00 to $271.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 9th. BNP Paribas Exane decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $300.00 to $255.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, September 24th. Evercore ISI set a $280.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, September 25th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $325.00 to $270.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 26th. Finally, Mizuho lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $348.00 to $309.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, September 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $297.48.

Accenture Stock Down 0.5%

ACN stock opened at $249.14 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $247.18 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $278.05. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $164.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.51, a PEG ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.28. Accenture PLC has a one year low of $229.40 and a one year high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.98 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $17.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.66 earnings per share. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 10th will be issued a $1.63 dividend. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 10th. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.6%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 53.66%.

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.