Cooper Financial Group Decreases Stock Position in Accenture PLC $ACN

Cooper Financial Group cut its stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 35.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,167 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 651 shares during the quarter. Cooper Financial Group’s holdings in Accenture were worth $349,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Kelly Lawrence W & Associates Inc. CA bought a new stake in Accenture during the first quarter valued at $31,000. Inlight Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Accenture during the first quarter worth about $32,000. WPG Advisers LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 1st quarter valued at about $42,000. Atwood & Palmer Inc. grew its position in Accenture by 407.4% during the 1st quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. now owns 137 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $43,000 after acquiring an additional 110 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cheviot Value Management LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the 1st quarter worth approximately $43,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have commented on ACN. HSBC lowered their price target on Accenture from $240.00 to $215.00 in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Mizuho reduced their target price on Accenture from $348.00 to $309.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. UBS Group cut their price target on Accenture from $363.00 to $315.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, September 24th. Wolfe Research cut their price target on Accenture from $290.00 to $285.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 23rd. Finally, Barclays lowered their price objective on Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $300.22.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total transaction of $57,315.02. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 5,249 shares in the company, valued at $1,482,002.66. This trade represents a 3.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $141,170.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,283 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $644,582.22. The trade was a 17.97% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 2,954 shares of company stock worth $834,280 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $244.58 on Friday. Accenture PLC has a one year low of $229.40 and a one year 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 stock has a market cap of $153.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.13, a P/E/G ratio of 2.12 and a beta of 1.28. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $250.32 and its 200 day moving average is $284.19.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 earnings per share (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 business had revenue of $17.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.34 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.66 EPS. 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. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current 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 paid a $1.63 dividend. This represents a $6.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.7%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 10th. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 48.72%.

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.