Cornerstone Advisors LLC Raises Holdings in Accenture PLC $ACN

Cornerstone Advisors LLC raised its position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 35.8% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 45,100 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 11,900 shares during the period. Cornerstone Advisors LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $13,480,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Brighton Jones LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 36.2% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 18,438 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $6,486,000 after purchasing an additional 4,905 shares in the last quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 556.3% during the first quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC now owns 735 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $229,000 after buying an additional 623 shares during the last quarter. Balentine LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 240.5% in the 1st quarter. Balentine LLC now owns 3,388 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,057,000 after acquiring an additional 2,393 shares during the last quarter. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC now owns 43,002 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $13,418,000 after acquiring an additional 248 shares during the period. Finally, South Dakota Investment Council boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 141.7% during the 1st quarter. South Dakota Investment Council now owns 40,257 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $12,562,000 after acquiring an additional 23,600 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Down 0.9%

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $245.29 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $161.52 billion, a PE ratio of 20.19, a PEG ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.28. Accenture PLC has a twelve month low of $229.40 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $244.66 and a 200-day simple moving average of $273.05.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.98 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $17.60 billion during 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%.Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.66 EPS. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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 represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 10th. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 53.66%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on ACN. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $315.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $330.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 26th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Accenture in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Susquehanna cut their target price on Accenture from $330.00 to $270.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 18th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 11th. One equities research 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 given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $294.25.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Manish Sharma sold 6,902 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.01, for a total value of $1,725,569.02. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 1,860 shares in the company, valued at approximately $465,018.60. This trade represents a 78.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale 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 the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $246.62, for a total value of $1,459,250.54. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 8,599 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,120,685.38. The trade was a 40.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 33,319 shares of company stock worth $8,335,225 in the last ninety days. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Company Profile

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.