Czech National Bank Increases Stake in Accenture PLC $ACN

Czech National Bank lifted its stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 3.3% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 158,192 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 5,093 shares during the quarter. Czech National Bank’s holdings in Accenture were worth $39,010,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Kelly Lawrence W & Associates Inc. CA bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 1st quarter valued at about $31,000. Investors Research Corp lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 73.8% in the third quarter. Investors Research Corp now owns 106 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. RMG Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the second quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Heartwood Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Finally, WPG Advisers LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the 1st quarter worth approximately $42,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. Wolfe Research raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $300.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 11th. Guggenheim lifted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $285.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday. BMO Capital Markets decreased 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 report on Friday, September 26th. Wells Fargo & Company assumed coverage on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $251.00 price target for the company. Finally, Evercore ISI set a $280.00 price objective on Accenture in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $294.04.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 5,917 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $246.62, for a total value of $1,459,250.54. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 8,599 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,120,685.38. This represents a 40.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Manish Sharma sold 6,902 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.01, for a total transaction of $1,725,569.02. Following the sale, the insider owned 1,860 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $465,018.60. The trade was a 78.77% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 33,319 shares of company stock valued at $8,335,225. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

Accenture stock opened at $273.40 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.42 and a quick ratio of 1.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $180.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 1.26. Accenture PLC has a 1-year low of $229.40 and a 1-year high of $398.35. The company’s 50-day moving average is $251.83 and its 200 day moving average is $264.30.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $17.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.34 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.66 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. 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 was paid on Friday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 10th were given a dividend of $1.63 per share. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.4%. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 53.66%.

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.