Caldwell Trust Co Takes $2.95 Million Position in Accenture PLC $ACN

Caldwell Trust Co purchased a new position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 9,877 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,952,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Sanders Capital LLC bought a new stake in Accenture during the second quarter valued at $2,637,640,000. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at about $2,216,850,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 3,490,569 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Accenture by 2.1% in the second 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 period. Finally, McElhenny Sheffield Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the second quarter valued at approximately $308,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Manish Sharma sold 6,902 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.01, for a total transaction of $1,725,569.02. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 1,860 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $465,018.60. The trade was a 78.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 2,500 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,390 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $346,763.30. This trade represents a 64.27% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 33,319 shares of company stock worth $8,335,225 in the last three months. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $271.70 on Monday. Accenture PLC has a 52 week low of $229.40 and a 52 week high of $398.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock has a market cap of $178.91 billion, a PE ratio of 22.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 1.26. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $250.48 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $264.85.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced 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. Accenture had a net margin of 11.02% and a return on equity of 26.45%. The company had revenue of $17.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.34 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.66 EPS. The business’s 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. As a group, sell-side 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 was paid on Friday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 10th were paid a dividend of $1.63 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 10th. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.4%. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 53.66%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently issued reports on ACN shares. TD Cowen cut their price target on Accenture from $313.00 to $295.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 26th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price 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. Mizuho reduced their price target on Accenture from $348.00 to $309.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, September 29th. Wolfe Research raised their price target on Accenture from $300.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company assumed coverage on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $251.00 price objective for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $293.21.

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.