Meridian Wealth Management LLC Cuts Stake in Accenture PLC $ACN

Meridian Wealth Management LLC decreased its stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 82.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,516 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 11,608 shares during the period. Meridian Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $752,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its stake 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 during the period. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd acquired a new position in Accenture in the 1st quarter worth $526,000. Elyxium Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the 1st quarter valued at about $693,000. IFP Advisors Inc grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.4% during the first quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 11,186 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,490,000 after acquiring an additional 266 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Montag A & Associates Inc. increased its position in shares of Accenture by 4.0% during the first quarter. Montag A & Associates Inc. now owns 11,435 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,568,000 after acquiring an additional 438 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.47, for a total value of $623,675.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 1,390 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $346,763.30. This trade represents a 64.27% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Manish Sharma sold 6,902 shares of the company’s 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 transaction, the insider owned 1,860 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $465,018.60. The trade was a 78.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 33,319 shares of company stock valued at $8,335,225 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. Rothschild Redb downgraded Accenture from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company assumed coverage on Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $251.00 target price for the company. Dbs Bank raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 27th. BMO Capital Markets cut 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, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective 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. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $294.25.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $245.29 on Monday. 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 company has a market capitalization of $161.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.19, a price-to-earnings-growth 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 business has a 50 day simple moving average of $244.66 and a 200-day simple moving average of $272.86.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.98 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $17.60 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.34 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.02% and a return on equity of 26.45%. The firm’s revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $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, equities research analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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%. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 53.66%.

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.