Insider Selling: Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Insider Sells 6,902 Shares of Stock

Key Points

• Accenture insider Manish Sharma sold 6,902 shares at an average price of $250.01, totaling $1.73 million, and reduced his position by 78.77%.
• The company reported $3.03 EPS for its latest quarter, surpassing analysts' expectations and showing a 7.3% year-over-year revenue growth.
• Accenture declared a quarterly dividend of $1.63 per share, increasing from the previous $1.48, with a dividend yield of 2.6%.

Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) insider Manish Sharma sold 6,902 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.01, for a total value of $1,725,569.02. Following the sale, the insider owned 1,860 shares in the company, valued at $465,018.60. The trade was a 78.77% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN traded up $0.45 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $249.59. 2,879,678 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,867,859. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $247.18 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $278.05. Accenture PLC has a 1 year low of $229.40 and a 1 year high of $398.35. 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 company has a market cap of $164.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.18 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 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.34 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.66 earnings per share. The company'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, analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have commented on ACN shares. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $325.00 to $270.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 26th. Citigroup began coverage on Accenture in a research report on Wednesday. They set a "neutral" rating and a $266.00 price objective on the stock. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $330.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a "hold" rating on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday, September 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on Accenture from $370.00 to $330.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $297.48.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Investors Research Corp grew its position in shares of Accenture by 73.8% during the 3rd quarter. Investors Research Corp now owns 106 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the period. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Accenture by 132.6% in the 3rd quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 107 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 61 shares during the period. Davis Capital Management bought a new position in Accenture in the 3rd quarter worth $28,000. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Accenture by 146.0% in the 3rd quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC now owns 123 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 73 shares during the period. Finally, Kelly Lawrence W & Associates Inc. CA bought a new position in Accenture in the 1st quarter worth $31,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

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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