Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Upgraded at Wells Fargo & Company

Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Accenture (NYSE:ACN) to a hold rating in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday morning,Zacks.com reports.

ACN has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Mizuho dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $348.00 to $309.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, September 29th. HSBC dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $240.00 to $215.00 in a research note on Friday, September 26th. BNP Paribas Exane reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $300.00 to $255.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, September 24th. Barclays cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. Finally, TD Cowen lowered their price objective on Accenture from $313.00 to $295.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, September 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $297.48.

Accenture Trading Up 0.2%

Shares of ACN stock opened at $249.59 on Tuesday. 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 has a fifty-two week low of $229.40 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The company has a market cap of $164.35 billion, a PE ratio of 20.54, a P/E/G ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 1.28. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $247.25 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $277.81.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.98 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $17.60 billion for 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 quarterly revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.66 EPS. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. Equities analysts predict that Accenture will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Investors of record on Friday, October 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.63 per share. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 10th. This represents a $6.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.6%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 53.66%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.57, for a total transaction of $2,246,130.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 23,516 shares in the company, valued at $5,868,888.12. The trade was a 27.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Manish Sharma sold 6,902 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the insider owned 1,860 shares in the company, valued at approximately $465,018.60. This represents a 78.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 18,402 shares of company stock valued at $4,595,374. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Capital Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 32.5% during the 3rd quarter. Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 21,737 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $5,360,000 after purchasing an additional 5,336 shares during the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in Accenture by 17.8% in the 3rd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 159,323 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $39,304,000 after purchasing an additional 24,101 shares in the last quarter. BKM Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. BKM Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,623 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,126,000 after buying an additional 88 shares in the last quarter. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. now owns 71,523 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $17,638,000 after buying an additional 1,390 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1,408.2% in the third quarter. Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. now owns 84,430 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $20,820,000 after acquiring an additional 78,832 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% 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.