Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. Sells 22,300 Shares of Accenture PLC $ACN

Key Points

• Adage Capital Partners reduced its stake in Accenture PLC by 4.0%, selling 22,300 shares and holding 540,422 shares worth approximately $168.6 million as of the latest filing.
• Accenture's latest quarterly earnings report indicated an EPS of $3.49, exceeding analyst estimates and reflecting a 7.7% year-over-year revenue growth, reaching $17.73 billion.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $1.48 per share, resulting in an annualized dividend of $5.92 and a yield of 2.3%, with a payout ratio of 47.13%.

Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. cut its stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 4.0% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 540,422 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 22,300 shares during the quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. owned about 0.09% of Accenture worth $168,633,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Lipe & Dalton raised its holdings in Accenture by 2,087.4% in the 1st quarter. Lipe & Dalton now owns 5,031 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,570,000 after purchasing an additional 4,801 shares in the last quarter. United Bank bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the 1st quarter worth about $758,000. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 62.2% in the 1st quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 905 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $282,000 after acquiring an additional 347 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the 4th quarter worth about $317,000. Finally, Ceredex Value Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the 1st quarter worth about $35,934,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN stock traded up $1.65 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $254.59. The company had a trading volume of 4,235,857 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,641,824. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $268.80 and a 200-day moving average price of $298.01. Accenture PLC has a one year low of $236.67 and a one year high of $398.35. The firm has a market cap of $159.45 billion, a PE ratio of 20.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a current ratio of 1.46.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.13 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter 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. Sell-side analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th were paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.3%. Accenture's payout ratio is currently 47.13%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total transaction of $635,794.95. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 8,109 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,290,387.05. The trade was a 21.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total transaction of $141,170.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,283 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $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. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 2,954 shares of company stock worth $834,280. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the subject of several research reports. Rothschild Redb lowered shares of Accenture from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday. Rothschild & Co Redburn lowered shares of Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $250.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Wednesday. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Accenture to a "moderate sell" rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. Finally, UBS Group restated a "buy" rating and set a $395.00 price objective (up from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $353.76.

Accenture Company 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.