Richard W. Paul & Associates LLC Buys 1,179 Shares of Accenture PLC $ACN

Richard W. Paul & Associates LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 2,563.0% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,225 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,179 shares during the period. Richard W. Paul & Associates LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $366,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Kelly Lawrence W & Associates Inc. CA bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 1st quarter valued at about $31,000. RMG Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $33,000. WPG Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the first quarter worth approximately $42,000. Cheviot Value Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the first quarter worth approximately $43,000. Finally, Fiduciary Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 1st quarter worth approximately $45,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Dbs Bank upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 27th. Wolfe Research boosted their target price on Accenture from $285.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on Accenture from $355.00 to $315.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 16th. Guggenheim lowered their price objective on Accenture from $305.00 to $285.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada cut their target price 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. One investment 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 assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $294.25.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related 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 sale, the insider owned 1,860 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $465,018.60. The trade was a 78.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 2,500 shares of the business’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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,390 shares in the company, valued at approximately $346,763.30. This represents a 64.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last three months, insiders have sold 33,319 shares of company stock valued at $8,335,225. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $251.87 on Friday. 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 firm has a market cap of $165.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.73, a P/E/G ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.28. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $244.30 and its 200-day moving average price is $270.93. Accenture PLC has a fifty-two week low of $229.40 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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. 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 analyst estimates of $17.34 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.66 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 10th were issued a $1.63 dividend. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.6%. 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 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.