J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. Grows Stock Position in Accenture PLC $ACN

J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 62.1% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 14,578 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 5,586 shares during the period. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,357,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Kelly Lawrence W & Associates Inc. CA purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 1st quarter worth $31,000. RMG Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the 2nd quarter worth $33,000. WPG Advisers LLC purchased a new position in Accenture during the first quarter valued at $42,000. Cheviot Value Management LLC bought a new stake in Accenture during the first quarter valued at about $43,000. Finally, Fiduciary Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the first quarter worth about $45,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $247.91 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $163.24 billion, a PE ratio of 20.40, a P/E/G ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.28. Accenture PLC has a 1-year low of $229.40 and a 1-year high of $398.35. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $244.81 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $269.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.42 and a quick ratio of 1.42.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its 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 net margin of 11.02% and a return on equity of 26.45%. 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 firm posted $2.66 earnings per share. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter 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, research analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 10th were given a dividend of $1.63 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 10th. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.6%. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is currently 53.66%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.57, for a total transaction of $2,246,130.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 23,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,868,888.12. The trade was a 27.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Manish Sharma sold 6,902 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 directly owned 1,860 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $465,018.60. The trade was a 78.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 33,319 shares of company stock worth $8,335,225. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on ACN shares. UBS Group cut their price objective on Accenture from $363.00 to $315.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, September 24th. Citigroup raised shares of Accenture to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 23rd. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $325.00 to $270.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Mizuho cut their price target on Accenture from $348.00 to $309.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, September 29th. Finally, Susquehanna lowered their price objective on Accenture from $330.00 to $270.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, September 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $294.25.

Accenture Company 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.