Empirical Asset Management LLC Takes Position in Accenture PLC $ACN

Key Points

• Empirical Asset Management LLC has acquired a new stake in Accenture PLC, purchasing 1,111 shares valued at approximately $332,000 during the second quarter.
• Accenture recently reported earnings of $3.03 per share for the quarter, exceeding analysts' estimates of $2.98, while also experiencing a year-over-year revenue increase of 7.3%.
• The company announced an increase in its quarterly dividend from $1.48 to $1.63 per share, with a dividend yield of 2.7%, to be paid on November 14th.

Empirical Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 1,111 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $332,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of ACN. Kelly Lawrence W & Associates Inc. CA acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the 1st quarter valued at about $31,000. Inlight Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the first quarter valued at about $32,000. RMG Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the second quarter valued at about $33,000. WPG Advisers LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the first quarter valued at about $42,000. Finally, Cheviot Value Management LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the first quarter valued at about $43,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Accenture Stock Up 1.9%

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $238.46 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 firm has a market capitalization of $157.02 billion, a PE ratio of 19.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 1.28. The firm's 50-day moving average is $246.78 and its two-hundred day moving average is $279.16. 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 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 net margin of 11.02% and a return on equity of 26.45%. The firm had revenue of $17.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.34 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.66 earnings per share. The business's quarterly 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 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Investors of record on Friday, October 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.63 per share. 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 dividend yield of 2.7%. Accenture's payout ratio is currently 53.66%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have commented on ACN shares. UBS Group decreased their target price 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $302.00 to $290.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 26th. BNP Paribas Exane decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $300.00 to $255.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, September 24th. Susquehanna cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $330.00 to $270.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 18th. Finally, Wolfe Research cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $290.00 to $285.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target 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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