Accenture PLC $ACN Shares Purchased by Running Oak Capital LLC

Key Points

• Running Oak Capital LLC increased its stake in Accenture PLC by 15% during Q2, owning a total of 50,351 shares, valued at $15 million.
• Accenture announced a quarterly dividend of $1.63 per share, up from its previous dividend of $1.48, representing an annual yield of 2.7%.
• Recent analyst reports have lowered price targets for Accenture, with BMO Capital Markets setting a target of $270, compared to a previous target of $325.

Running Oak Capital LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 15.0% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 50,351 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 6,581 shares during the quarter. Running Oak Capital LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $15,049,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Redwood Investments LLC raised its position in Accenture by 6.2% during the 1st quarter. Redwood Investments LLC now owns 22,087 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $6,892,000 after buying an additional 1,287 shares during the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp raised its holdings in Accenture by 7.0% during the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 436,202 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $130,376,000 after purchasing an additional 28,685 shares in the last quarter. Lipe & Dalton lifted its position in Accenture by 2,087.4% in the first quarter. Lipe & Dalton now owns 5,031 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,570,000 after purchasing an additional 4,801 shares during the period. Intech Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 40.5% in the 1st quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 98,633 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $30,777,000 after purchasing an additional 28,446 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Park National Corp OH raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 4.3% during the 2nd quarter. Park National Corp OH now owns 129,667 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $38,756,000 after buying an additional 5,388 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on Accenture from $325.00 to $270.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 26th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $260.00 to $235.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 26th. Guggenheim lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $305.00 to $285.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 26th. BNP Paribas Exane reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $300.00 to $255.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, September 24th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price target on Accenture from $363.00 to $315.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, September 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $300.22.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $141,170.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,283 shares of the company's stock, valued at $644,582.22. The trade was a 17.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $57,315.02. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 5,249 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,482,002.66. The trade was a 3.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 2,954 shares of company stock valued at $834,280 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN stock opened at $245.39 on Monday. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $249.57 and its 200 day moving average price is $283.24. The firm has a market cap of $153.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.20, a PEG ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a current ratio of 1.42. Accenture PLC has a 1 year low of $229.40 and a 1 year high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.98 by $0.05. The company 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%.The business's revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. 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. Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.63 per share. This represents a $6.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.7%. This is a boost from Accenture's previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 10th. Accenture's payout ratio is presently 48.72%.

Accenture 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.

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