Accenture (NYSE:ACN) CEO Julie Spellman Sweet Sells 9,000 Shares

Key Points

• CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of Accenture stock for a total of $2,280,600, reducing her holdings by 38.27% and leaving her with 14,516 shares valued at approximately $3.68 million.
• Accenture declared an increase in its quarterly dividend to $1.63 per share, representing an annualized yield of 2.6%, payable on November 14th.
• The company reported $3.03 earnings per share, exceeding analyst estimates, with a revenue of $17.60 billion for the most recent quarter, up 7.3% year-over-year.

Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $253.40, for a total value of $2,280,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 14,516 shares in the company, valued at $3,678,354.40. The trade was a 38.27% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Julie Spellman Sweet also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Wednesday, October 22nd, Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of Accenture stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.57, for a total value of $2,246,130.00.

Accenture Stock Up 0.6%

ACN stock traded up $1.41 during trading on Thursday, reaching $249.16. 3,970,497 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,870,521. Accenture PLC has a 12 month low of $229.40 and a 12 month high of $398.35. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $247.13 and a 200 day simple moving average of $276.58. The company has a market capitalization of $164.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.28. 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 (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.98 by $0.05. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.45% and a net margin of 11.02%.The company had revenue of $17.60 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.34 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.66 earnings per share. The firm'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. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

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

Institutional Trading of Accenture

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Sanders Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the second quarter worth approximately $2,637,640,000. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Accenture during the second quarter worth approximately $2,216,850,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position 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 buying an additional 3,490,569 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Accenture by 5.7% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 63,814,234 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $19,912,594,000 after buying an additional 3,419,577 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Accenture by 2,782.1% during the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,445,281 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $450,985,000 after buying an additional 1,395,135 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have commented on ACN shares. TD Cowen decreased their price target on Accenture from $313.00 to $295.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Wolfe Research raised their price objective on Accenture from $285.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Rothschild & Co Redburn raised their price objective on Accenture from $250.00 to $255.00 in a research note on Friday, September 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Accenture from $302.00 to $290.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Finally, Evercore ISI set a $280.00 price objective on Accenture in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $294.25.

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.

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