Findlay Park Partners LLP Lowers Stock Position in Accenture PLC $ACN

Key Points

• Findlay Park Partners LLP has reduced its stake in Accenture PLC by 23.2%, now owning 858,498 shares valued at approximately $267.9 million.
• Accenture reported $3.49 EPS for the last quarter, surpassing analysts' expectations, with a 7.7% revenue increase year-over-year.
• Insider trading activity includes CEO Mauro Macchi selling 500 shares and Angela Beatty selling 203 shares, both at an average price of $282.34.

Findlay Park Partners LLP reduced its holdings in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 23.2% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 858,498 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 259,700 shares during the quarter. Accenture makes up about 2.8% of Findlay Park Partners LLP's portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest holding. Findlay Park Partners LLP owned about 0.14% of Accenture worth $267,886,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $35,934,000. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec raised its stake in Accenture by 25.1% during the first quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 645,636 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $201,464,000 after buying an additional 129,678 shares during the last quarter. Corebridge Financial Inc. raised its stake in Accenture by 1.9% during the first quarter. Corebridge Financial Inc. now owns 146,353 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $45,668,000 after buying an additional 2,742 shares during the last quarter. Ally Financial Inc. bought a new position in Accenture during the first quarter worth $936,000. Finally, Freedom Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Accenture by 0.7% during the first quarter. Freedom Investment Management Inc. now owns 8,353 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $2,606,000 after buying an additional 56 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft started coverage on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. They set a "hold" rating and a $290.00 target price for the company. Benchmark reissued a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, June 20th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 23rd. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Accenture to a "moderate sell" rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $358.08.

Accenture Stock Up 1.5%

Shares of Accenture stock traded up $3.95 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $260.12. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,805,715 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,719,596. Accenture PLC has a one year low of $236.67 and a one year high of $398.35. The company has a market capitalization of $162.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.71, a P/E/G ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 1.29. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $272.89 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $301.99. 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 released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share 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 firm had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.13 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Accenture has set its Q4 2025 guidance at EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 12.770-12.890 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th were given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.13%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

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

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.