Accenture PLC $ACN Shares Bought by Private Management Group Inc.

Private Management Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 45.2% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,263 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 393 shares during the quarter. Private Management Group Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $377,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Sanders Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the 2nd quarter worth about $2,637,640,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of 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 worth $2,793,889,000 after acquiring an additional 3,490,569 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 5.7% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 63,814,234 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $19,912,594,000 after acquiring an additional 3,419,577 shares during the last quarter. McElhenny Sheffield Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the second quarter valued at approximately $308,000. Finally, Flossbach Von Storch SE increased its position in Accenture by 48.0% during the second quarter. Flossbach Von Storch SE now owns 2,408,800 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $719,966,000 after purchasing an additional 781,211 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Accenture Stock Up 4.6%

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $251.87 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $165.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a 50 day moving average of $244.30 and a two-hundred day moving average of $270.93. Accenture PLC has a 52-week low of $229.40 and a 52-week high of $398.35. 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 (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results 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 business 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 business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. 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. As a group, analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 10th were given a dividend of $1.63 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 10th. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. This represents a $6.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.6%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 53.66%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.57, for a total value of $2,246,130.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 23,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,868,888.12. This represents a 27.68% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Manish Sharma sold 6,902 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.01, for a total transaction of $1,725,569.02. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 1,860 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $465,018.60. This represents a 78.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 33,319 shares of company stock worth $8,335,225. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Accenture to a “moderate sell” rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. TD Cowen lowered their price target on Accenture from $313.00 to $295.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on Accenture from $355.00 to $315.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, September 16th. Wells Fargo & Company started coverage on Accenture in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $251.00 target price for the company. Finally, Rothschild Redb lowered shares of Accenture from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. One 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 given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $294.25.

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.