Townsend & Associates Inc Purchases 2,502 Shares of Accenture PLC $ACN

Key Points

• Townsend & Associates Inc increased its stake in Accenture PLC by 5.6% during the second quarter, now holding a total of 47,145 shares valued at approximately $13.35 million.
• Accenture has raised its quarterly dividend from $1.48 to $1.63 per share, reflecting a positive change and resulting in an annualized yield of 2.7%.
• Several analysts have downgraded their price targets for Accenture, with HSBC lowering its target from $240.00 to $215.00, but the stock still maintains a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy".

Townsend & Associates Inc increased its position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 5.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 47,145 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 2,502 shares during the quarter. Townsend & Associates Inc's holdings in Accenture were worth $13,349,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Accenture by 5.7% during 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 acquiring an additional 3,419,577 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake 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 valued at $2,793,889,000 after buying an additional 3,490,569 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake 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 valued at $2,111,378,000 after buying an additional 228,939 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC lifted its stake 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 valued at $1,923,225,000 after buying an additional 126,548 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake 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 valued at $1,600,470,000 after buying an additional 164,573 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have weighed in on ACN shares. HSBC cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $240.00 to $215.00 in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Robert W. Baird cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $330.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $302.00 to $290.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 26th. 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. Finally, Mizuho lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $348.00 to $309.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, September 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $300.22.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $238.46 on Monday. 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 PLC has a 12-month low of $229.40 and a 12-month high of $398.35. The company has a market capitalization of $157.02 billion, a PE ratio of 19.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 1.28. The firm's 50 day moving average is $246.78 and its 200-day moving average is $278.74.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. The company 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 firm's revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last 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. Equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 issued 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 yield of 2.7%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio 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.

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.