Gradient Investments LLC Buys 4,589 Shares of Accenture PLC $ACN

Gradient Investments LLC grew its stake in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 11.6% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 44,191 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,589 shares during the quarter. Gradient Investments LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $10,898,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 36.2% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 18,438 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $6,486,000 after acquiring an additional 4,905 shares during the period. Capital Analysts LLC grew its position in Accenture by 7.5% in the first quarter. Capital Analysts LLC now owns 13,970 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $4,359,000 after acquiring an additional 975 shares during the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Accenture by 12.6% during the first quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 920 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $288,000 after acquiring an additional 103 shares in the last quarter. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 4.9% in the 1st quarter. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC now owns 8,589 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,680,000 after purchasing an additional 404 shares in the last quarter. Finally, TFB Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 12.1% during the 1st quarter. TFB Advisors LLC now owns 814 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $254,000 after purchasing an additional 88 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 5,917 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $246.62, for a total transaction of $1,459,250.54. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 8,599 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,120,685.38. This trade represents a 40.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Manish Sharma sold 6,902 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 22nd. The shares were 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 directly owned 1,860 shares in the company, valued at approximately $465,018.60. This trade represents a 78.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 33,319 shares of company stock worth $8,335,225 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $302.00 to $290.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on Accenture from $235.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 10th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on Accenture from $250.00 to $270.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 10th. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Accenture in a report on Wednesday. Finally, HSBC dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $240.00 to $215.00 in a report on Friday, September 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $294.04.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE:ACN opened at $273.40 on Thursday. 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 PLC has a fifty-two week low of $229.40 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $251.83 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $264.30. The company has a market capitalization of $180.03 billion, a PE ratio of 22.50, a P/E/G ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 1.26.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $17.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.34 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.66 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

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

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.