CENTRAL TRUST Co Sells 414 Shares of Accenture PLC $ACN

CENTRAL TRUST Co reduced its stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 4.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 9,923 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 414 shares during the quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,966,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 36.2% during 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 acquiring an additional 4,905 shares during the period. Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc. bought a new stake in Accenture during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $264,000. Edgestream Partners L.P. grew its holdings in Accenture by 302.4% in the 1st quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 11,654 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $3,637,000 after buying an additional 8,758 shares during the last quarter. Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. bought a new position in Accenture in the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,548,000. Finally, Lord & Richards Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the first quarter worth approximately $260,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.47, for a total value of $623,675.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 1,390 shares in the company, valued at approximately $346,763.30. The trade was a 64.27% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owned 23,516 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,868,888.12. The trade was a 27.68% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders sold 33,319 shares of company stock valued at $8,335,225. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $242.57 on Wednesday. Accenture PLC has a twelve month low of $229.40 and a twelve month 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. The firm has a market cap of $159.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.28. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $245.10 and its 200-day simple moving average is $273.93.

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 net margin of 11.02% and a return on equity of 26.45%. The firm had revenue of $17.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.34 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.66 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter 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. As a group, research analysts expect 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. Shareholders 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. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.7%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 53.66%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on ACN. Dbs Bank raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 27th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $315.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 16th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $325.00 to $271.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, September 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $302.00 to $290.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded Accenture to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $294.25.

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.