United Bank Buys 1,209 Shares of Accenture PLC $ACN

Key Points

• United Bank increased its stake in Accenture PLC by 49.8%, acquiring an additional 1,209 shares, reaching a total of 3,639 shares valued at approximately $1,088,000.
• Accenture recently reported earnings per share of $3.03, exceeding analysts' expectations, with revenue of $17.60 billion for the quarter, marking a 7.3% year-over-year increase.
• The company announced a dividend increase to $1.63 per share, up from $1.48, with a yield of 2.7%, demonstrating a commitment to returning value to shareholders.

United Bank grew its stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 49.8% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 3,639 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 1,209 shares during the period. United Bank's holdings in Accenture were worth $1,088,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 3,490,569 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Accenture by 5.7% during 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 last quarter. 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 acquiring an additional 1,395,135 shares during the last quarter. McElhenny Sheffield Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the second quarter valued at approximately $308,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in Accenture by 23.5% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,823,228 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $880,960,000 after acquiring an additional 537,223 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. HSBC decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $240.00 to $215.00 in a report on Friday, September 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $302.00 to $290.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 26th. Wolfe Research decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $290.00 to $285.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 23rd. Evercore ISI set a $280.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. Finally, Susquehanna cut their price objective 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. One 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 assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $300.22.

Accenture Stock Up 1.9%

ACN opened at $238.46 on Friday. Accenture PLC has a fifty-two week low of $229.40 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a current ratio of 1.42. The company has a fifty day moving average of $246.78 and a two-hundred day moving average of $279.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $157.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.63, a PEG ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 1.28.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $17.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $17.34 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.66 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 10th will be issued a $1.63 dividend. 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.7%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is presently 53.66%.

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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