Accenture PLC $ACN Stake Decreased by Lee Danner & Bass Inc.

Key Points

• Lee Danner & Bass Inc. reduced its stake in Accenture PLC by 4.4% during the 2nd quarter, now holding approximately 109,574 shares valued at about $32.75 million.
• Several institutional investors increased their positions in Accenture, with Price T Rowe Associates Inc. boosting its holdings by 63.9%, now owning nearly 8.95 million shares worth approximately $2.79 billion.
• Insiders, including CEO Ryoji Sekido, sold a significant number of shares recently, with Sekido's sale representing a 64.27% decrease in his ownership of the stock.

Lee Danner & Bass Inc. cut its holdings in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 4.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 109,574 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 4,984 shares during the quarter. Accenture makes up approximately 2.5% of Lee Danner & Bass Inc.'s portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest holding. Lee Danner & Bass Inc.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $32,751,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings 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 valued at $2,793,889,000 after purchasing an additional 3,490,569 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of 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 valued at $19,912,594,000 after buying an additional 3,419,577 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of 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 valued at $450,985,000 after buying an additional 1,395,135 shares during the period. McElhenny Sheffield Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the second quarter valued at about $308,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of Accenture by 23.5% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,823,228 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $880,960,000 after purchasing an additional 537,223 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 2,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.47, for a total transaction of $623,675.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,390 shares in the company, valued at $346,763.30. This trade represents a 64.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Manish Sharma sold 6,902 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the insider 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 18,402 shares of company stock valued at $4,595,374. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $248.51 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $247.25 and a 200 day moving average of $277.81. Accenture PLC has a 52 week low of $229.40 and a 52 week high of $398.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $163.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.43, a PEG ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a quick ratio of 1.42, a current ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.34 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.66 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 10th will be given a dividend of $1.63 per share. This is an increase from Accenture's previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 10th. Accenture's payout ratio is 53.66%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on ACN. Mizuho decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $348.00 to $309.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, September 29th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $315.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, September 24th. Rothschild Redb cut shares of Accenture from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Weiss Ratings reiterated a "hold (c-)" rating on shares of Accenture in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Guggenheim reduced their price target 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. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $297.48.

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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