Merit Financial Group LLC Boosts Holdings in Accenture PLC $ACN

Merit Financial Group LLC raised its stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 16.5% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 17,849 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,527 shares during the period. Merit Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $5,335,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Brighton Jones LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 36.2% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 18,438 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $6,486,000 after buying an additional 4,905 shares during the period. Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 55.4% in the 1st quarter. Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC now owns 1,500 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $468,000 after acquiring an additional 535 shares during the period. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. lifted its holdings in Accenture by 231.9% during the first quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. now owns 312 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $97,000 after purchasing an additional 218 shares during the last quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN boosted its position in Accenture by 4.8% during the first quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN now owns 3,452 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,077,000 after purchasing an additional 157 shares during the period. Finally, Wedge Capital Management L L P NC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 18.1% in the first quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 39,613 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $12,361,000 after purchasing an additional 6,058 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently commented on ACN shares. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on Accenture from $302.00 to $290.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 26th. Guggenheim decreased their price objective on Accenture from $305.00 to $285.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 26th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on Accenture from $325.00 to $270.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 26th. Finally, Rothschild Redb lowered Accenture from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $300.22.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $248.18 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $248.99 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $282.84. Accenture PLC has a twelve month low of $229.40 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $155.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.43, a P/E/G ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a quick ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.98 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $17.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.34 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.45% and a net margin of 11.02%.Accenture’s revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous 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, equities analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 10th will be given a dividend of $1.63 per share. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 10th. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.6%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 48.72%.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $57,315.02. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 5,249 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,482,002.66. The trade was a 3.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total value of $635,794.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 8,109 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,290,387.05. This represents a 21.73% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 2,954 shares of company stock valued at $834,280. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Company 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.