Legal & General Group Plc Lowers Stake in Accenture PLC $ACN

Legal & General Group Plc trimmed its holdings in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 1.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 4,721,296 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 64,696 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc owned about 0.75% of Accenture worth $1,411,148,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Accenture by 2.1% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 65,129,782 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $19,466,641,000 after buying an additional 1,315,548 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.1% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,042,843 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,182,331,000 after acquiring an additional 147,931 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its position in shares of Accenture by 0.6% in the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 8,998,826 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,689,659,000 after purchasing an additional 56,108 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in Accenture by 63.9% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,953,621 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,793,889,000 after purchasing an additional 3,490,569 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sanders Capital LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $2,637,640,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Accenture to a “moderate sell” rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Accenture in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. HSBC lowered their target price on Accenture from $240.00 to $215.00 in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Wall Street Zen cut Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, October 11th. Finally, Dbs Bank upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $294.25.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, insider Manish Sharma sold 6,902 shares of the business’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 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 5,917 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $246.62, for a total transaction of $1,459,250.54. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 8,599 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,120,685.38. The trade was a 40.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 33,319 shares of company stock valued at $8,335,225. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Accenture Stock Down 0.0%

NYSE ACN opened at $241.02 on Friday. Accenture PLC has a one year low of $229.40 and a one year high of $398.35. 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 business has a fifty day moving average price of $244.03 and a 200 day moving average price of $271.55. The company has a market cap of $158.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.84, a P/E/G ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.28.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.98 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $17.60 billion during 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 for the quarter was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter 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. Research analysts anticipate 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. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 10th were given a $1.63 dividend. This represents a $6.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.7%. This is a boost 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 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.