Accenture PLC $ACN Shares Sold by Ninety One UK Ltd

Key Points

• Ninety One UK Ltd has decreased its position in Accenture PLC by 5.5%, selling 14,007 shares, and now owns 240,182 shares valued at approximately $71.79 million.
• Accenture reported earnings of $3.03 per share for the most recent quarter, exceeding analyst expectations, with revenue of $17.60 billion.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend increase to $1.63 per share, up from $1.48, reflecting a 2.6% yield based on their current stock price.

Ninety One UK Ltd trimmed its position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 5.5% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 240,182 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 14,007 shares during the period. Ninety One UK Ltd's holdings in Accenture were worth $71,788,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. Kelly Lawrence W & Associates Inc. CA purchased a new position in Accenture during the first quarter worth about $31,000. Inlight Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 1st quarter worth approximately $32,000. WPG Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $42,000. Atwood & Palmer Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Accenture by 407.4% in the first quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. now owns 137 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $43,000 after buying an additional 110 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cheviot Value Management LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the first quarter worth $43,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Accenture Stock Down 0.1%

ACN opened at $246.72 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $154.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.31, a PEG ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.29. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $251.91 and its 200 day simple moving average is $285.04. Accenture PLC has a 52 week low of $229.40 and a 52 week high of $398.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.98 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $17.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.34 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.02% and a return on equity of 26.45%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.66 EPS. 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 firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Shareholders 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 is Friday, October 10th. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.6%. Accenture's payout ratio is presently 48.72%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. HSBC reduced their target price on Accenture from $240.00 to $215.00 in a report on Friday, September 26th. Benchmark reiterated a "mixed" rating on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, June 20th. Jefferies Financial Group restated a "hold" rating on shares of Accenture in a research report on Tuesday. BNP Paribas Exane dropped their target price on shares of Accenture from $300.00 to $255.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, September 24th. Finally, Barclays decreased their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $300.22.

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.