Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. Lowers Stake in Accenture PLC $ACN

Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. trimmed its holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 13.2% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 16,060 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 2,435 shares during the period. Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,800,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Accenture by 2.1% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 65,129,782 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $19,466,641,000 after acquiring an additional 1,315,548 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.1% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,042,843 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,182,331,000 after purchasing an additional 147,931 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.6% during the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 8,998,826 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,689,659,000 after purchasing an additional 56,108 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 63.9% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,953,621 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,793,889,000 after purchasing an additional 3,490,569 shares during the period. Finally, Sanders Capital LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the 2nd quarter valued at $2,637,640,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $269.31 on Friday. Accenture PLC has a 12 month low of $229.40 and a 12 month high of $398.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $177.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 1.26. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $247.47 and its 200-day simple moving average is $267.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.42 and a quick 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 (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.98 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $17.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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 period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.66 earnings per share. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 10th were given a dividend of $1.63 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 10th. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. This represents a $6.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.4%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 53.66%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “hold” rating on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, September 30th. Rothschild Redb cut shares of Accenture from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Guggenheim lowered their price objective on Accenture from $305.00 to $285.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 26th. HSBC cut their target price on Accenture from $240.00 to $215.00 in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on Accenture from $325.00 to $270.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $294.25.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In related news, insider Manish Sharma sold 6,902 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the insider owned 1,860 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $465,018.60. This represents a 78.77% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 5,917 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $246.62, for a total value of $1,459,250.54. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 8,599 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,120,685.38. The trade was a 40.76% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 33,319 shares of company stock valued at $8,335,225 over the last quarter. 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.