Carnegie Investment Counsel Acquires 4,734 Shares of Accenture PLC $ACN

Key Points

• Carnegie Investment Counsel increased its holdings in Accenture PLC by 4.8% during the second quarter, acquiring 4,734 shares and bringing its total to 103,467 shares valued at approximately $30.93 million.
• Accenture recently announced a quarterly dividend of $1.63, an increase from the previous dividend of $1.48, representing a yield of 2.6%.
• Analysts have varying ratings for Accenture, with one Strong Buy, fourteen Buy, and one Sell, reflecting a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy".

Carnegie Investment Counsel boosted its holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 4.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 103,467 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 4,734 shares during the quarter. Carnegie Investment Counsel's holdings in Accenture were worth $30,925,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. FSM Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 2.3% during the 2nd quarter. FSM Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,628 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $790,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. KPP Advisory Services LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 19.7% during the 2nd quarter. KPP Advisory Services LLC now owns 4,328 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,294,000 after acquiring an additional 711 shares during the last quarter. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 11.5% during the 2nd quarter. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. now owns 67,896 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $20,293,000 after acquiring an additional 6,995 shares during the last quarter. Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 2.0% during the 2nd quarter. Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC now owns 174,648 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $52,200,000 after acquiring an additional 3,507 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Granite Harbor Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 14.2% during the 2nd quarter. Granite Harbor Advisors Inc. now owns 911 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $272,000 after acquiring an additional 113 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on ACN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on Accenture from $302.00 to $290.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on Accenture from $370.00 to $330.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Rothschild & Co Redburn raised their price target on Accenture from $250.00 to $255.00 in a research report on Friday, September 19th. Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $330.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Finally, Susquehanna lowered their price target on Accenture from $330.00 to $270.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $297.48.

Accenture Stock Performance

ACN stock opened at $249.59 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.42, a current ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $247.25 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $277.81. Accenture PLC has a twelve month low of $229.40 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The firm has a market cap of $164.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.54, a PEG ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 1.28.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its 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. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.45% and a net margin of 11.02%.The business had revenue of $17.60 billion for 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 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. Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. Analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 10th. This is a positive change from Accenture's previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. This represents a $6.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.6%. Accenture's payout ratio is 53.66%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.57, for a total value of $2,246,130.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 23,516 shares in the company, valued at $5,868,888.12. This trade represents a 27.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.47, for a total value of $623,675.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 1,390 shares in the company, valued at approximately $346,763.30. The trade was a 64.27% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 18,402 shares of company stock worth $4,595,374 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

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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