Woodward Diversified Capital LLC Buys New Position in Accenture PLC $ACN

Key Points

• Woodward Diversified Capital LLC invested approximately $364,000 in Accenture PLC by acquiring 1,217 shares in the second quarter.
• Accenture recently reported quarterly earnings of $3.03 per share, exceeding analyst expectations, with revenue of $17.60 billion, a 7.3% increase from the previous year.
• The company announced a dividend increase to $1.63 per share, effective November 14th, representing an annualized return of $6.52 and a yield of 2.7%.

Woodward Diversified Capital LLC bought a new stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 1,217 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $364,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 4,905 shares in the last quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in Accenture by 7.8% during the first quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 15,322 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $4,781,000 after buying an additional 1,110 shares in the last quarter. RFG Advisory LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 4.7% during the 1st quarter. RFG Advisory LLC now owns 3,187 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $995,000 after purchasing an additional 143 shares in the last quarter. Apella Capital LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 6.9% during the 1st quarter. Apella Capital LLC now owns 10,227 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $3,067,000 after purchasing an additional 659 shares in the last quarter. Finally, TrueWealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 1st quarter valued at about $282,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Guggenheim reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $305.00 to $285.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 26th. Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their price objective on Accenture from $372.00 to $285.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $330.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Mizuho decreased their price target on Accenture from $348.00 to $309.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Finally, Hsbc Global Res upgraded Accenture to a "moderate sell" rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $300.22.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $243.50 on Thursday. Accenture PLC has a 12 month low of $229.40 and a 12 month high of $398.35. The stock has a market cap of $152.51 billion, a PE ratio of 20.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a quick ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $251.06 and a 200-day simple moving average of $284.75.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $17.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.34 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.66 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue 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, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.63 per share. This is an increase from Accenture's previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 10th. This represents a $6.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.7%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.72%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total transaction of $141,170.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,283 shares of the company's stock, valued at $644,582.22. This trade represents a 17.97% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $57,315.02. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 5,249 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,482,002.66. The trade was a 3.72% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 2,954 shares of company stock valued at $834,280 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

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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