Eastern Bank Decreases Stock Holdings in Accenture PLC $ACN

Key Points

• Eastern Bank has reduced its stock holdings in Accenture PLC by 3.4%, resulting in ownership of 31,749 shares valued at approximately $9.49 million.
• Accenture recently announced an increase in its quarterly dividend to $1.63, reflecting an annualized amount of $6.52 and a yield of 2.7%.
• Accenture's stock has seen a decline of 4.3%, while its market capitalization stands at $151.01 billion with shares opening at $241.11.

Eastern Bank decreased its position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 3.4% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 31,749 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 1,128 shares during the quarter. Eastern Bank's holdings in Accenture were worth $9,489,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 36.2% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 18,438 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $6,486,000 after purchasing an additional 4,905 shares in the last quarter. Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. now owns 5,598 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,747,000 after purchasing an additional 47 shares in the last quarter. Rockland Trust Co. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.7% during the 1st quarter. Rockland Trust Co. now owns 69,647 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $21,733,000 after purchasing an additional 1,177 shares in the last quarter. Birch Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.7% during the 1st quarter. Birch Capital Management LLC now owns 19,132 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $5,970,000 after purchasing an additional 502 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Liberty Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 5.8% during the 1st quarter. Liberty Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,023 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,255,000 after purchasing an additional 222 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Accenture Stock Down 4.3%

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $241.11 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a current ratio of 1.42. The stock has a market capitalization of $151.01 billion, a PE ratio of 19.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 1.28. Accenture PLC has a 52-week low of $229.40 and a 52-week high of $398.35. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $247.45 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $281.57.

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, topping the consensus estimate of $2.98 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $17.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $17.34 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.02% and a return on equity of 26.45%. 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 company earned $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, analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on ACN. BNP Paribas Exane cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $300.00 to $255.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, September 24th. HSBC dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $240.00 to $215.00 in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Guggenheim dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $305.00 to $285.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Cowen reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $330.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $300.22.

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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