Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. Takes $71,000 Position in Accenture PLC $ACN

Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. purchased a new stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 239 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $71,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. Plato Investment Management Ltd boosted its holdings in Accenture by 7.1% during the second quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd now owns 17,806 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $5,303,000 after purchasing an additional 1,185 shares during the last quarter. Kesler Norman & Wride LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 1.7% during the second quarter. Kesler Norman & Wride LLC now owns 21,971 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $6,567,000 after purchasing an additional 374 shares during the last quarter. Hills Bank & Trust Co boosted its holdings in Accenture by 16.2% during the second quarter. Hills Bank & Trust Co now owns 4,134 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,236,000 after purchasing an additional 577 shares during the last quarter. Syverson Strege & Co acquired a new position in Accenture during the second quarter worth $216,000. Finally, AlphaStar Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 715.0% during the second quarter. AlphaStar Capital Management LLC now owns 5,420 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,620,000 after purchasing an additional 4,755 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.57, for a total transaction of $2,246,130.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 23,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,868,888.12. This trade represents a 27.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.47, for a total transaction of $623,675.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,390 shares in the company, valued at approximately $346,763.30. This represents a 64.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 27,402 shares of company stock valued at $6,875,974 over the last ninety days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently commented on ACN. Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $330.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 26th. Dbs Bank upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 27th. Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $315.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, September 16th. Finally, Guggenheim cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $305.00 to $285.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $294.25.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $248.37 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $163.55 billion, a PE ratio of 20.44, a PEG ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.28. The company’s 50-day moving average is $246.71 and its 200-day moving average is $275.73. Accenture PLC has a fifty-two week low of $229.40 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.42 and a quick ratio of 1.42.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.98 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $17.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.34 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.02% and a return on equity of 26.45%. The company’s revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior 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. Equities analysts forecast 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. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 10th will be given a $1.63 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 10th. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.6%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 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.