Accenture PLC $ACN Shares Sold by Ninety One North America Inc.

Key Points

• Ninety One North America Inc. has reduced its stake in Accenture PLC by 1.2%, now holding 112,136 shares valued at approximately $33.5 million, making Accenture its 23rd largest holding.
• Accenture recently reported quarterly earnings of $3.03 EPS, exceeding expectations and reflecting a 7.3% year-over-year revenue increase to $17.60 billion.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend increase to $1.63 from the previous $1.48, representing a 2.6% dividend yield and a payout ratio of 48.72%.

Ninety One North America Inc. lessened its stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 1.2% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 112,136 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 1,378 shares during the quarter. Accenture comprises approximately 1.6% of Ninety One North America Inc.'s holdings, making the stock its 23rd biggest holding. Ninety One North America Inc.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $33,516,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Rogco LP raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 16.1% in the 2nd quarter. Rogco LP now owns 1,986 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $594,000 after acquiring an additional 275 shares during the period. Forza Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 6.0% in the 2nd quarter. Forza Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,554 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,062,000 after acquiring an additional 201 shares during the period. Community Bank & Trust Waco Texas raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 11.4% in the 2nd quarter. Community Bank & Trust Waco Texas now owns 2,426 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $725,000 after acquiring an additional 248 shares during the period. Childress Capital Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 41.1% in the 2nd quarter. Childress Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,761 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $526,000 after acquiring an additional 513 shares during the period. Finally, PFG Investments LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 14.3% in the 2nd quarter. PFG Investments LLC now owns 3,040 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $909,000 after acquiring an additional 381 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN opened at $246.72 on Wednesday. Accenture PLC has a 1-year low of $229.40 and a 1-year high of $398.35. The company has a 50-day moving average of $251.91 and a 200-day moving average of $285.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a current ratio of 1.42. The company has a market capitalization of $154.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.31, a PEG ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.29.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 analyst estimates of $17.34 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.66 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. Equities analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 10th will be issued a $1.63 dividend. This is a boost 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 presently 48.72%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on ACN. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $315.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 16th. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Accenture to a "moderate sell" rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $260.00 to $235.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Cowen reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on shares of Accenture from $325.00 to $270.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $300.22.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $57,315.02. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 5,249 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,482,002.66. The trade was a 3.72% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total transaction of $635,794.95. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 8,109 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,290,387.05. The trade was a 21.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 2,954 shares of company stock valued at $834,280. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

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.

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