First Merchants Corp Decreases Holdings in Accenture PLC $ACN

First Merchants Corp lessened its stake in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 2.8% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 44,274 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 1,283 shares during the period. First Merchants Corp’s holdings in Accenture were worth $13,233,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Kelly Lawrence W & Associates Inc. CA purchased a new stake in Accenture during the first quarter worth about $31,000. Inlight Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the first quarter worth about $32,000. RMG Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the second quarter worth about $33,000. WPG Advisers LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the first quarter worth about $42,000. Finally, Cheviot Value Management LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the first quarter worth about $43,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Up 0.8%

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $253.17 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.42 and a quick ratio of 1.46. Accenture PLC has a 1 year low of $229.40 and a 1 year high of $398.35. The firm has a market cap of $158.57 billion, a PE ratio of 20.84, a PEG ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $248.02 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $282.42.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released 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 net margin of 11.02% and a return on equity of 26.45%. The business had revenue of $17.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.34 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.66 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. Analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on ACN. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $315.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, September 16th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Accenture to a “moderate sell” rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Benchmark reiterated a “mixed” rating on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, June 20th. Argus set a $370.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Accenture in a research report on Wednesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $300.22.

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.