Edgestream Partners L.P. Acquires 6,944 Shares of Accenture PLC $ACN

Edgestream Partners L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 59.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 18,598 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,944 shares during the quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $5,559,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. River Road Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 190.3% during the 2nd quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC now owns 53,731 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $16,060,000 after acquiring an additional 35,221 shares during the period. BLI Banque de Luxembourg Investments lifted its position in Accenture by 83.4% during the second quarter. BLI Banque de Luxembourg Investments now owns 162,079 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $47,876,000 after purchasing an additional 73,700 shares during the period. Bristol Gate Capital Partners Inc. acquired a new stake in Accenture during the second quarter worth about $74,387,000. First National Advisers LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter. First National Advisers LLC now owns 9,579 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,863,000 after buying an additional 159 shares during the period. Finally, New York State Common Retirement Fund lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.7% during the 2nd quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 793,792 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $237,256,000 after acquiring an additional 20,798 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on ACN. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Accenture in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Dbs Bank raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 27th. HSBC decreased their target price on Accenture from $240.00 to $215.00 in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, October 11th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $302.00 to $290.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 26th. One equities research 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 given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $294.25.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $261.49 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $172.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.52, a P/E/G ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.26. Accenture PLC has a twelve month low of $229.40 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The company’s fifty day moving average is $246.05 and its 200 day moving average is $267.41. The company has a quick ratio of 1.42, a current ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.98 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $17.60 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.34 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.45% and a net margin of 11.02%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.66 EPS. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 10th were given a dividend of $1.63 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 10th. This represents a $6.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.5%. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 53.66%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Manish Sharma sold 6,902 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.01, for a total value of $1,725,569.02. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 1,860 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $465,018.60. This represents a 78.77% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.57, for a total transaction of $2,246,130.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 23,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,868,888.12. This trade represents a 27.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 33,319 shares of company stock worth $8,335,225. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.