Alight Capital Management LP Takes $936,000 Position in Accenture PLC $ACN

Key Points

• Alight Capital Management LP has invested approximately $936,000 in Accenture PLC by acquiring 3,000 shares during the 1st quarter.
• Accenture reported earnings of $3.49 per share for the last quarter, exceeding analysts' estimates of $3.32, with revenue reaching $17.73 billion.
• Accenture announced a quarterly dividend of $1.48 per share, yielding around 2.3%, with a payout ratio of 47.13%.

Alight Capital Management LP bought a new position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 3,000 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $936,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. acquired a new stake in Accenture in the 1st quarter worth about $47,457,000. Ancora Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.3% during the first quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC now owns 106,079 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $33,101,000 after acquiring an additional 2,347 shares during the period. Aprio Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Accenture by 2.1% in the first quarter. Aprio Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,640 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $512,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares during the last quarter. Unisphere Establishment grew its position in shares of Accenture by 15.5% in the first quarter. Unisphere Establishment now owns 21,600 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $6,740,000 after purchasing an additional 2,900 shares during the last quarter. Finally, EP Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 193.0% during the first quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 73,055 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $22,796,000 after buying an additional 48,120 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. HSBC started coverage on shares of Accenture in a report on Monday, July 28th. They set a "reduce" rating and a $240.00 price target for the company. Mizuho set a $348.00 price objective on shares of Accenture and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Rothschild Redb downgraded shares of Accenture from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $340.00 to $325.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Accenture to a "moderate sell" rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $353.76.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total value of $635,794.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 8,109 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,290,387.05. This represents a 21.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $141,170.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,283 shares of the company's stock, valued at $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. Insiders sold 2,954 shares of company stock valued at $834,280 in the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Stock Down 0.1%

Shares of ACN stock traded down $0.34 during trading on Monday, reaching $254.61. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,613,962 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,534,672. The company has a market cap of $159.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 1.30. Accenture PLC has a one year low of $236.67 and a one year high of $398.35. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $268.80 and a 200-day moving average price of $296.75. The company has a quick ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The company's revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.13 earnings per share. Accenture has set its Q4 2025 guidance at EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 12.770-12.890 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

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

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.