Park National Corp OH Raises Stock Holdings in Accenture PLC $ACN

Park National Corp OH lifted its holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 13.5% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 147,143 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 17,476 shares during the quarter. Accenture makes up about 1.1% of Park National Corp OH’s holdings, making the stock its 29th biggest holding. Park National Corp OH’s holdings in Accenture were worth $36,285,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of ACN. Kelly Lawrence W & Associates Inc. CA purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the first quarter valued at approximately $31,000. RMG Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Howard Hughes Medical Institute bought a new stake in Accenture in the second quarter worth $40,000. WPG Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the first quarter worth $42,000. Finally, Traub Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 2nd quarter worth about $45,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on ACN. Mizuho dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $348.00 to $309.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, September 29th. HSBC reduced their target price on Accenture from $240.00 to $215.00 in a report on Friday, September 26th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on Accenture from $355.00 to $315.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, September 16th. Citigroup upgraded Accenture to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, October 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $294.04.

Accenture Trading Up 1.3%

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $275.02 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $251.01 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $264.55. The stock has a market capitalization of $181.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.64, a PEG ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 1.26. Accenture PLC has a 52-week low of $229.40 and a 52-week 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.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.98 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $17.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.66 EPS. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. Analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 10th were paid a $1.63 dividend. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 10th. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.4%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 53.66%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, insider Manish Sharma sold 6,902 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the insider owned 1,860 shares in the company, valued at $465,018.60. This represents a 78.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.47, for a total transaction of $623,675.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,390 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $346,763.30. This represents a 64.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 33,319 shares of company stock worth $8,335,225. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.