Woodline Partners LP Grows Position in Accenture PLC $ACN

Key Points

• Woodline Partners LP significantly increased its stake in Accenture PLC by 535.2% in the first quarter, reaching a total of 188,299 shares valued at approximately $58.76 million.
• Accenture recently reported earnings of $3.49 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' expectations, and recorded a revenue of $17.73 billion, which was above forecasts.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $1.48, translating to an annual dividend of $5.92 and a yield of 2.3%.

Woodline Partners LP raised its holdings in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 535.2% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 188,299 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 158,657 shares during the period. Woodline Partners LP's holdings in Accenture were worth $58,757,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 36.2% during 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 during the period. Graham Capital Management L.P. bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $1,484,000. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 348.5% during the 4th quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. now owns 9,894 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $3,481,000 after buying an additional 7,688 shares during the period. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1,898.4% during the 4th quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 105,475 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $37,105,000 after buying an additional 100,197 shares during the period. Finally, Interval Partners LP bought a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 4th quarter valued at $2,241,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN traded down $5.60 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $238.55. The company's stock had a trading volume of 5,636,222 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,580,306. The business's 50-day moving average price is $264.53 and its 200-day moving average price is $294.50. Accenture PLC has a 12 month low of $236.67 and a 12 month high of $398.35. The stock has a market cap of $149.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.99, a P/E/G ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.32 by $0.17. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The business had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $3.13 earnings per share. Accenture's quarterly revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Accenture has set its Q4 2025 guidance at EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 12.770-12.890 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Accenture to a "moderate sell" rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Rothschild Redb downgraded shares of Accenture from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Evercore ISI began coverage on Accenture in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $330.00 price objective for the company. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Accenture from $325.00 to $271.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn downgraded shares of Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $250.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $346.92.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owned 2,283 shares in the company, valued at approximately $644,582.22. This represents a 17.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total transaction 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. The trade was a 21.73% 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 worth $834,280. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Accenture 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.