Pinnacle Associates Ltd. Grows Stock Position in Accenture PLC $ACN

Pinnacle Associates Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 2.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 35,101 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 769 shares during the period. Pinnacle Associates Ltd.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $10,491,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. 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 valued at $2,793,889,000 after buying an additional 3,490,569 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Accenture by 5.7% in the 1st 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 last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its position in Accenture by 2,782.1% in the 1st quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,445,281 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $450,985,000 after acquiring an additional 1,395,135 shares during the last quarter. McElhenny Sheffield Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the 2nd quarter valued at $308,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its position in Accenture by 23.5% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,823,228 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $880,960,000 after acquiring an additional 537,223 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN opened at $250.44 on Friday. Accenture PLC has a 12-month low of $229.40 and a 12-month high of $398.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $246.87 and its 200-day simple moving average is $276.12. The company has a market capitalization of $164.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.61, a PEG ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.28.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.34 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.66 EPS. The business’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. On average, equities research analysts anticipate 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 will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Investors of record on Friday, October 10th will be given a dividend of $1.63 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 10th. This is an increase 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 is 53.66%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, 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 $346,763.30. This trade represents a 64.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $253.40, for a total value of $2,280,600.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 14,516 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,678,354.40. The trade was a 38.27% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 27,402 shares of company stock valued at $6,875,974 over the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on ACN shares. Hsbc Global Res raised Accenture to a “moderate sell” rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on Accenture from $355.00 to $315.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 16th. Guggenheim cut their price objective on Accenture from $305.00 to $285.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Susquehanna cut 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. Finally, Dbs Bank raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus 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.