Challenger Wealth Management Sells 94 Shares of Accenture PLC $ACN

Challenger Wealth Management trimmed its stake in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 3.6% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 2,543 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 94 shares during the quarter. Challenger Wealth Management’s holdings in Accenture were worth $794,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in Accenture by 63.9% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,953,621 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,793,889,000 after buying an additional 3,490,569 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 5.7% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 63,814,234 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $19,912,594,000 after acquiring an additional 3,419,577 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 30,256.8% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,421,519 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,067,651,000 after acquiring an additional 3,410,248 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Accenture by 2,782.1% in the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,445,281 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $450,985,000 after acquiring an additional 1,395,135 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH acquired a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $225,217,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Guggenheim reduced their target price on Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 23rd. Argus set a $370.00 price objective on Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Rothschild Redb downgraded Accenture from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. HSBC began coverage on shares of Accenture in a report on Monday, July 28th. They issued a “reduce” rating and a $240.00 target price for the company. Finally, Evercore ISI started coverage on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, July 17th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $330.00 price target on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $353.76.

Accenture Stock Performance

NYSE:ACN opened at $254.59 on Monday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $268.80 and its 200-day moving average is $296.75. Accenture PLC has a 1-year low of $236.67 and a 1-year high of $398.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock has a market cap of $159.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 1.30.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The business had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $3.13 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. Accenture has set its Q4 2025 guidance at EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 12.770-12.890 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th were paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.3%. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 47.13%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total transaction of $57,315.02. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 5,249 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,482,002.66. This trade represents a 3.72% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $141,170.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,283 shares in the company, valued at $644,582.22. The trade was a 17.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 2,954 shares of company stock worth $834,280 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.02% 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.