Accenture PLC $ACN Shares Bought by West Family Investments Inc.

West Family Investments Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 17.5% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 2,240 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 333 shares during the quarter. West Family Investments Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $670,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 36.2% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 18,438 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $6,486,000 after buying an additional 4,905 shares during the period. Harbour Investments Inc. lifted its position in Accenture by 7.8% during the 1st quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 1,230 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $384,000 after acquiring an additional 89 shares during the period. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 71.9% in the first quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. now owns 17,003 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $5,306,000 after purchasing an additional 7,109 shares during the period. Blueshift Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the first quarter worth about $266,000. Finally, IFG Advisory LLC raised its position in Accenture by 5.7% during the 1st quarter. IFG Advisory LLC now owns 11,183 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,490,000 after buying an additional 603 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Manish Sharma sold 6,902 shares of the company’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 completion of the sale, the insider owned 1,860 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $465,018.60. This represents a 78.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.47, for a total transaction of $623,675.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer 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 disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 33,319 shares of company stock valued at $8,335,225. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Up 0.9%

Shares of ACN stock opened at $250.00 on Friday. Accenture PLC has a fifty-two week low of $229.40 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $164.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.58, a PEG ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.28. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $245.16 and its two-hundred day moving average is $268.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a current ratio of 1.42.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 prior year, the company earned $2.66 EPS. Accenture’s 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. Research analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 14th. Investors of record on Friday, October 10th were given a dividend of $1.63 per share. The ex-dividend date was 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 2.6%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 53.66%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently issued reports on ACN. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, October 11th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Accenture from $325.00 to $271.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 9th. Wolfe Research boosted their price target on Accenture from $285.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Rothschild & Co Redburn raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $250.00 to $255.00 in a research note on Friday, September 19th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of Accenture from $302.00 to $290.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $294.25.

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.