First Fiduciary Investment Counsel Inc. Sells 1,249 Shares of Accenture PLC $ACN

Key Points

• First Fiduciary Investment Counsel Inc. has reduced its holdings in Accenture PLC by 4.0%, selling 1,249 shares and now owning a total of 30,266 shares valued at approximately $9 million.
• Several institutional investors, including Vanguard Group and Price T Rowe Associates, have increased their stakes in Accenture, indicating strong institutional interest with over 75% ownership by institutional investors.
• Accenture has reported earnings of $3.03 per share for the latest quarter, surpassing expectations, and also declared a quarterly dividend of $1.63, up from the previous $1.48.

First Fiduciary Investment Counsel Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 4.0% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 30,266 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 1,249 shares during the quarter. Accenture comprises 1.8% of First Fiduciary Investment Counsel Inc.'s portfolio, making the stock its 27th largest holding. First Fiduciary Investment Counsel Inc.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $9,046,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 5.7% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 63,814,234 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $19,912,594,000 after acquiring an additional 3,419,577 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in Accenture by 63.9% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,953,621 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $2,793,889,000 after purchasing an additional 3,490,569 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position in Accenture by 3.5% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 6,766,369 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $2,111,378,000 after purchasing an additional 228,939 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 2.1% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 6,163,393 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,923,225,000 after purchasing an additional 126,548 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Accenture by 3.3% in the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,129,053 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,600,470,000 after purchasing an additional 164,573 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently commented on the company. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "hold (c-)" rating on shares of Accenture in a research report on Wednesday. Rothschild Redb cut Accenture from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Wall Street Zen lowered Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday. TD Cowen dropped their price objective on Accenture from $313.00 to $295.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Finally, Mizuho dropped their price objective on Accenture from $348.00 to $309.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, September 29th. One equities research 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 given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $300.22.

Accenture Stock Performance

Accenture stock opened at $241.11 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $247.45 and a 200 day simple moving average of $281.57. The company has a quick ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Accenture PLC has a 12-month low of $229.40 and a 12-month high of $398.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $151.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.84, a P/E/G ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 1.28.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $17.34 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.66 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter 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. On average, research analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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 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%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.72%.

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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