AustralianSuper Pty Ltd Acquires 8,619 Shares of Accenture PLC $ACN

AustralianSuper Pty Ltd boosted its holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 511.2% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 10,305 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,619 shares during the period. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd’s holdings in Accenture were worth $3,080,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Kelly Lawrence W & Associates Inc. CA acquired a new position in shares of Accenture in the first quarter valued at approximately $31,000. RMG Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the 2nd quarter valued at $33,000. WPG Advisers LLC bought a new position in Accenture during the 1st quarter worth $42,000. Cheviot Value Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the first quarter worth $43,000. Finally, Fiduciary Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture in the first quarter valued at about $45,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Up 1.4%

ACN stock opened at $251.03 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $247.31 and a 200-day moving average price of $277.05. Accenture PLC has a 12 month low of $229.40 and a 12 month high of $398.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $165.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.28.

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Investors of record on Friday, October 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.63 per share. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 10th. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.6%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 53.66%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owned 23,516 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,868,888.12. The trade was a 27.68% 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 the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the transaction, the insider owned 1,860 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $465,018.60. This trade represents a 78.77% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 18,402 shares of company stock worth $4,595,374 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently commented on ACN shares. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Accenture in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $372.00 to $285.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 26th. Susquehanna cut their price target on Accenture from $330.00 to $270.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 18th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Accenture from $325.00 to $271.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 9th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on Accenture from $325.00 to $270.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, September 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $297.48.

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.