Duncan Williams Asset Management LLC Buys 686 Shares of Accenture PLC $ACN

Duncan Williams Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 19.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,188 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 686 shares during the quarter. Duncan Williams Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,252,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 5.7% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 63,814,234 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $19,912,594,000 after acquiring an additional 3,419,577 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in Accenture by 63.9% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,953,621 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,793,889,000 after purchasing an additional 3,490,569 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 3.5% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 6,766,369 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,111,378,000 after purchasing an additional 228,939 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.1% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 6,163,393 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,923,225,000 after buying an additional 126,548 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Accenture by 3.3% in the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,129,053 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,600,470,000 after buying an additional 164,573 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Up 0.4%

Accenture stock opened at $245.39 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Accenture PLC has a 1-year low of $229.40 and a 1-year high of $398.35. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $249.57 and a 200 day simple moving average of $283.24. The company has a market cap of $153.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 1.28.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted 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. The company had revenue of $17.60 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.34 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.02% and a return on equity of 26.45%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.66 EPS. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total transaction of $635,794.95. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 8,109 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,290,387.05. This represents a 21.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,283 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $644,582.22. This trade represents a 17.97% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 2,954 shares of company stock valued at $834,280. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on Accenture from $302.00 to $290.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their target price on Accenture from $260.00 to $235.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 26th. Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $330.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. Finally, Rothschild Redb downgraded shares of Accenture from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $300.22.

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.