William Blair Comments on Accenture plc’s Q1 2026 Earnings (NYSE:ACN)

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) – Investment analysts at William Blair issued their Q1 2026 earnings estimates for Accenture in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, September 26th. William Blair analyst M. Nolan expects that the information technology services provider will post earnings per share of $3.40 for the quarter. The consensus estimate for Accenture’s current full-year earnings is $11.95 per share. William Blair also issued estimates for Accenture’s Q2 2026 earnings at $3.17 EPS, Q3 2026 earnings at $3.56 EPS, Q4 2026 earnings at $3.55 EPS and FY2026 earnings at $13.69 EPS.

ACN has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Susquehanna raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Piper Sandler Companies reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $382.00 to $300.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 26th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $371.18.

Accenture Stock Performance

Accenture stock opened at $352.04 on Monday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $334.79 and a 200 day moving average price of $320.07. Accenture has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $387.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $220.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.24, a P/E/G ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. The firm had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.71 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.68%. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 47.25%.

Accenture announced that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total value of $1,649,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total transaction of $2,696,402.25. Following the transaction, the general counsel now owns 22,849 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,564,161.45. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total transaction of $1,649,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 8,989 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,964,751.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Mattson Financial Services LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 2nd quarter worth about $1,043,000. Anchor Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 1.1% in the second quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 5,661 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,718,000 after acquiring an additional 61 shares during the period. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund increased its stake in Accenture by 38.0% in the second quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 379,060 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $115,011,000 after acquiring an additional 104,325 shares during the period. Verity & Verity LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 8.0% in the second quarter. Verity & Verity LLC now owns 5,216 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,583,000 after acquiring an additional 387 shares during the period. Finally, Cim LLC increased its stake in Accenture by 9.6% in the second quarter. Cim LLC now owns 6,887 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,090,000 after acquiring an additional 604 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

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.