Cooper Financial Group Reduces Stake in Accenture PLC $ACN

Cooper Financial Group lowered its position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 35.8% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm 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 institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised 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 in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in Accenture by 63.9% during the first 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. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its holdings in Accenture by 3.5% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 6,766,369 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $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 grew its holdings in Accenture by 2.1% in 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 purchasing an additional 126,548 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew 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 worth $1,600,470,000 after purchasing an additional 164,573 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $141,170.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,283 shares in the company, valued at approximately $644,582.22. This trade represents a 17.97% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total transaction of $57,315.02. Following the sale, the insider owned 5,249 shares in the company, valued at $1,482,002.66. This represents a 3.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 2,954 shares of company stock worth $834,280. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE:ACN opened at $244.58 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $153.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.13, a PEG ratio of 2.12 and a beta of 1.28. Accenture PLC has a fifty-two week low of $229.40 and a fifty-two week 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 company has a 50 day moving average price of $250.32 and a 200 day moving average price of $284.19.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its 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. The company had revenue of $17.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.34 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.02% and a return on equity of 26.45%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.66 EPS. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. TD Cowen dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $313.00 to $295.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 26th. Wolfe Research decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $290.00 to $285.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, September 23rd. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $372.00 to $285.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Guggenheim reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $305.00 to $285.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $315.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, September 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $300.22.

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.