Congress Asset Management Co. Trims Stock Position in Accenture PLC $ACN

Key Points

• Congress Asset Management Co. reduced its stake in Accenture PLC by 2.6%, owning 65,001 shares after selling 1,743 shares, with a total valuation of approximately $19.4 million.
• Accenture recently reported earnings of $3.03 per share, surpassing forecasts, with quarterly revenue rising to $17.6 billion, a 7.3% increase year-over-year.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend increase to $1.63 per share, with a scheduled payment date on November 14th, representing a 2.7% dividend yield.

Congress Asset Management Co. reduced its stake in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 2.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 65,001 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 1,743 shares during the quarter. Congress Asset Management Co.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $19,428,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. Park Square Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in Accenture in the fourth quarter valued at $31,000. Kelly Lawrence W & Associates Inc. CA purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 1st quarter valued at about $31,000. Inlight Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 1st quarter valued at about $32,000. WPG Advisers LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 1st quarter valued at about $42,000. Finally, Atwood & Palmer Inc. increased its position in shares of Accenture by 407.4% in the first quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. now owns 137 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $43,000 after buying an additional 110 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN stock opened at $239.43 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.42 and a quick ratio of 1.46. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $253.43 and a 200-day simple moving average of $286.28. The firm has a market capitalization of $149.96 billion, a PE ratio of 19.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 1.29. 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 issued its earnings results on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 firm's quarterly revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.66 EPS. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Investors of record on Friday, October 10th will be issued a $1.63 dividend. This is an increase from Accenture's previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. This represents a $6.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 10th. Accenture's payout ratio is currently 47.13%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently commented on ACN shares. Wolfe Research cut their price objective on Accenture from $290.00 to $285.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $372.00 to $285.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Accenture to a "moderate sell" rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. BNP Paribas Exane cut their price objective on Accenture from $300.00 to $255.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Barclays dropped their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $301.91.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total value of $635,794.95. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 8,109 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,290,387.05. This represents a 21.73% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total transaction of $57,315.02. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 5,249 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,482,002.66. This trade represents a 3.72% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 2,954 shares of company stock valued at $834,280. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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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