Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S. Increases Stake in Accenture PLC $ACN

Key Points

• Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S. increased its stake in Accenture PLC by 6.1%, owning approximately 576,703 shares valued at about $172.37 million, making it the firm's 6th largest holding.
• Accenture recently announced a quarterly dividend of $1.63, up from $1.48, providing a dividend yield of 2.6% with a payout ratio of 53.66%.
• Wall Street analysts have mixed views on Accenture, with price targets ranging from $285 to $370, and a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy".

Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 6.1% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 576,703 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 33,172 shares during the quarter. Accenture accounts for about 4.2% of Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest holding. Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S. owned approximately 0.09% of Accenture worth $172,370,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 4,905 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 9.7% during the 1st quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,585 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $495,000 after acquiring an additional 140 shares during the period. Daymark Wealth Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. Daymark Wealth Partners LLC now owns 5,891 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,838,000 after buying an additional 41 shares during the period. Golden State Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 157.8% in the 1st quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,717 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $848,000 after buying an additional 1,663 shares during the period. Finally, Alpine Bank Wealth Management purchased a new stake in Accenture in the 1st quarter worth approximately $142,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Guggenheim dropped their price objective on Accenture from $305.00 to $285.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 26th. Wolfe Research increased their price objective on Accenture from $285.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on Accenture from $370.00 to $330.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 26th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on Accenture from $363.00 to $315.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, September 24th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, October 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $297.48.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 2,500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.47, for a total value of $623,675.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,390 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $346,763.30. The trade was a 64.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.57, for a total value of $2,246,130.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 23,516 shares in the company, valued at $5,868,888.12. This trade represents a 27.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 18,402 shares of company stock worth $4,595,374 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $249.59 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $164.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.54, a PEG ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.42 and a quick ratio of 1.42. The business has a fifty day moving average of $247.25 and a 200 day moving average of $277.81. Accenture PLC has a one year low of $229.40 and a one 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, beating the consensus estimate of $2.98 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $17.60 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.34 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.45% and a net margin of 11.02%.Accenture's quarterly revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.66 earnings per share. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 10th will be given a $1.63 dividend. 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.6%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 53.66%.

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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