Stephens Inc. AR Boosts Stock Holdings in Accenture PLC $ACN

Key Points

• Stephens Inc. AR increased its stake in Accenture PLC by 8.0% during the second quarter, acquiring an additional 1,716 shares, bringing their total holdings to 23,079 shares valued at approximately $6.9 million.
• Accenture reported a quarterly EPS of $3.03, exceeding analysts' estimates, and a revenue of $17.60 billion, marking a 7.3% year-over-year increase.
• The company declared a higher quarterly dividend of $1.63 per share, up from $1.48, providing an annualized dividend yield of 2.7% to investors.

Stephens Inc. AR grew its position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 8.0% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 23,079 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after buying an additional 1,716 shares during the quarter. Stephens Inc. AR's holdings in Accenture were worth $6,898,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Kelly Lawrence W & Associates Inc. CA bought a new position in Accenture in the first quarter worth approximately $31,000. RMG Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 2nd quarter valued at $33,000. WPG Advisers LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 1st quarter valued at $42,000. Cheviot Value Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 1st quarter valued at $43,000. Finally, Fiduciary Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 1st quarter valued at $45,000. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $242.31 on Tuesday. Accenture PLC has a 52 week low of $229.40 and a 52 week high of $398.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $159.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.94, a PEG ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 1.28. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $246.85 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $278.44. The company has a quick ratio of 1.42, a current ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $17.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $17.34 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.66 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. On average, analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Investors of record on Friday, October 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.63 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 10th. This represents a $6.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.7%. This is a boost from Accenture's previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is presently 53.66%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently commented on ACN. BNP Paribas Exane decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $300.00 to $255.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, September 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $330.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Evercore ISI set a $280.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $325.00 to $271.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, September 9th. Finally, Guggenheim dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $305.00 to $285.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $300.22.

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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