Ethic Inc. Decreases Stock Holdings in Accenture PLC $ACN

Key Points

• Ethic Inc. reduced its stake in Accenture PLC by 11.4%, ending the recent quarter with 57,621 shares valued at approximately $17 million.
• Accenture reported an earnings per share (EPS) of $3.03 for the most recent quarter, exceeding estimates and showing a 7.3% year-over-year revenue increase to $17.60 billion.
• The company announced an increase in its quarterly dividend to $1.63 per share, reflecting a positive change from the previous $1.48, with a yield of 2.6%.

Ethic Inc. lessened its stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 11.4% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 57,621 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 7,427 shares during the period. Ethic Inc.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $17,025,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased 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 buying an additional 3,490,569 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Accenture by 5.7% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 63,814,234 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $19,912,594,000 after purchasing an additional 3,419,577 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its position in 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 purchasing an additional 1,395,135 shares in the last quarter. McElhenny Sheffield Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the second quarter worth about $308,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 23.5% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,823,228 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $880,960,000 after buying an additional 537,223 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Accenture Trading Down 0.3%

ACN opened at $249.71 on Wednesday. Accenture PLC has a 52 week low of $229.40 and a 52 week high of $398.35. The company has a market capitalization of $164.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.55, a PEG ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 1.28. The stock's fifty day moving average is $247.11 and its two-hundred day moving average is $278.25. 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 posted its earnings results on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.98 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $17.60 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.34 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.02% and a return on equity of 26.45%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.66 EPS. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. Analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Argus set a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday, October 11th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price target on Accenture from $260.00 to $235.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Accenture from $302.00 to $290.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Finally, Cowen reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $298.79.

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.

Want to see what other hedge funds are holding ACN? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report).

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.