Sierra Legacy Group Buys 2,786 Shares of Accenture PLC $ACN

Sierra Legacy Group increased its stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 38.3% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 10,060 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,786 shares during the period. Accenture accounts for about 2.3% of Sierra Legacy Group’s portfolio, making the stock its 10th largest position. Sierra Legacy Group’s holdings in Accenture were worth $3,007,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Sanders Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the 2nd quarter valued at $2,637,640,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in Accenture by 63.9% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,953,621 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,793,889,000 after purchasing an additional 3,490,569 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Accenture by 5.7% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 63,814,234 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $19,912,594,000 after purchasing an additional 3,419,577 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 2,782.1% in the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,445,281 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $450,985,000 after purchasing an additional 1,395,135 shares during the last quarter. Finally, McElhenny Sheffield Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the second quarter worth about $308,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Manish Sharma sold 6,902 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.01, for a total transaction of $1,725,569.02. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 1,860 shares in the company, valued at $465,018.60. This represents a 78.77% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 2,500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.47, for a total value of $623,675.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 1,390 shares in the company, valued at approximately $346,763.30. The trade was a 64.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last quarter, insiders sold 33,319 shares of company stock valued at $8,335,225. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently commented on ACN. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Accenture to a “moderate sell” rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $372.00 to $285.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 26th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $325.00 to $271.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 9th. Wolfe Research upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $285.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on Accenture from $325.00 to $270.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $294.25.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE:ACN opened at $239.99 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.42, a current ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Accenture PLC has a 52 week low of $229.40 and a 52 week high of $398.35. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $244.13 and its 200-day moving average price is $271.98. The stock has a market capitalization of $158.03 billion, a PE ratio of 19.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.28.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.98 by $0.05. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.45% and a net margin of 11.02%.The company had revenue of $17.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.34 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.66 EPS. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 14th. Investors of record on Friday, October 10th were paid a $1.63 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 10th. This represents a $6.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.7%. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 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.