Plato Investment Management Ltd Decreases Stake in Accenture PLC $ACN

Key Points

• Plato Investment Management Ltd reduced its stake in Accenture PLC by 12.1%, resulting in holdings valued at $5.24 million after selling 2,287 shares.
• The company reported a quarterly EPS of $3.49, exceeding analysts' estimates, with revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, up 7.7% year-over-year.
• Accenture's current average target price is $348.12, with a majority of analysts rating it as a "Buy" or "Strong Buy."

Plato Investment Management Ltd lessened its stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 12.1% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 16,621 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 2,287 shares during the period. Plato Investment Management Ltd's holdings in Accenture were worth $5,243,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. SageView Advisory Group LLC grew its position in Accenture by 12.6% during the first quarter. SageView Advisory Group LLC now owns 2,736 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $854,000 after buying an additional 307 shares during the period. Advisory Alpha LLC increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 15.7% in the 1st quarter. Advisory Alpha LLC now owns 1,778 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $555,000 after purchasing an additional 241 shares in the last quarter. SCS Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the 1st quarter worth about $1,827,000. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 2.1% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 6,163,393 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,923,225,000 after purchasing an additional 126,548 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Woodline Partners LP increased its position in shares of Accenture by 535.2% in the first quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 188,299 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $58,757,000 after buying an additional 158,657 shares in the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,283 shares in the company, valued at approximately $644,582.22. This trade represents a 17.97% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $57,315.02. Following the transaction, the insider owned 5,249 shares in the company, valued at $1,482,002.66. This trade represents a 3.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 2,954 shares of company stock valued at $834,280. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on ACN. Mizuho set a $348.00 price target on shares of Accenture and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Guggenheim reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $360.00 to $335.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. HSBC initiated coverage on shares of Accenture in a research note on Monday, July 28th. They issued a "reduce" rating and a $240.00 price target on the stock. Evercore ISI assumed coverage on Accenture in a report on Thursday, July 17th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $330.00 target price for the company. Finally, Barclays lowered 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, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $346.92.

Accenture Trading Down 2.3%

NYSE ACN traded down $5.60 on Friday, reaching $238.55. 5,636,222 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,573,657. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The business's fifty day moving average price is $263.21 and its 200 day moving average price is $293.64. The stock has a market capitalization of $149.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 1.29. Accenture PLC has a fifty-two week low of $236.67 and a fifty-two week high of $398.35.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. The company had revenue of $17.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. Accenture's revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.13 EPS. Accenture has set its Q4 2025 guidance at EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 12.770-12.890 EPS. Analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

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.