Accenture PLC $ACN Stock Position Cut by Birch Hill Investment Advisors LLC

Key Points

• Birch Hill Investment Advisors LLC has reduced its stake in Accenture PLC by 4.8%, now holding 28,994 shares valued at approximately $8.67 million.
• Accenture recently reported a quarterly earnings per share (EPS) of $3.03, exceeding analyst expectations, with a revenue increase of 7.3% year-over-year.
• The firm has increased its quarterly dividend to $1.63, resulting in an annualized dividend yield of 2.6% for shareholders.

Birch Hill Investment Advisors LLC lessened its stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 4.8% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 28,994 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 1,473 shares during the period. Birch Hill Investment Advisors LLC's holdings in Accenture were worth $8,666,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Brighton Jones LLC grew its position in Accenture by 36.2% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 18,438 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $6,486,000 after buying an additional 4,905 shares in the last quarter. Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC grew its position in Accenture by 24.8% in the 1st quarter. Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC now owns 5,124 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,599,000 after buying an additional 1,017 shares in the last quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. grew its position in Accenture by 6.5% in the 1st quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 268,967 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $83,928,000 after buying an additional 16,530 shares in the last quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. grew its position in Accenture by 2.5% in the 1st quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 21,745 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $6,785,000 after buying an additional 532 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Palisade Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Accenture by 1.8% in the 1st quarter. Palisade Asset Management LLC now owns 35,634 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $11,119,000 after acquiring an additional 645 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on ACN. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $315.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 16th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $251.00 price target on shares of Accenture and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Tuesday. UBS Group cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $315.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, September 24th. Guggenheim cut their price target on shares of Accenture from $305.00 to $285.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 26th. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $250.00 to $255.00 in a report on Friday, September 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $298.17.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN stock opened at $250.70 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Accenture PLC has a one year low of $229.40 and a one year high of $398.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $165.08 billion, a PE ratio of 20.63, a P/E/G ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 1.28. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $247.11 and a two-hundred day moving average of $278.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.98 by $0.05. Accenture had a net margin of 11.02% and a return on equity of 26.45%. The company had revenue of $17.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.34 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.66 earnings per share. The business'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. On average, analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 10th. This represents a $6.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.6%. This is a positive change from Accenture's previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is currently 53.66%.

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.

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