Fisher Asset Management LLC Increases Stock Position in Accenture PLC $ACN

Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 258.8% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 13,452 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 9,703 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $4,021,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Sanders Capital LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the second quarter worth $2,637,640,000. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 2nd quarter valued at $2,216,850,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted 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 acquiring an additional 3,490,569 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Accenture by 2.1% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 65,129,782 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $19,466,641,000 after acquiring an additional 1,315,548 shares in the last quarter. Finally, McElhenny Sheffield Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture during the second quarter worth about $308,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $260.00 to $235.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 26th. Guggenheim dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $305.00 to $285.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Evercore ISI set a $280.00 price objective on Accenture in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on Accenture from $325.00 to $271.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $294.25.

Insider Activity at Accenture

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

Accenture Stock Down 1.3%

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $269.31 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $247.47 and a two-hundred day moving average of $267.46. The company has a market capitalization of $177.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.59 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 has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.42 and a quick ratio of 1.42.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.98 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $17.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.66 EPS. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 14th. Investors of record on Friday, October 10th were given a $1.63 dividend. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 10th. This represents a $6.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.4%. Accenture’s 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.