Accenture PLC $ACN Stake Lessened by Highland Capital Management LLC

Highland Capital Management LLC cut its holdings in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 1.3% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,868 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 50 shares during the quarter. Highland Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,156,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 63.9% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,953,621 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,793,889,000 after buying an additional 3,490,569 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Accenture by 5.7% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 63,814,234 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $19,912,594,000 after acquiring an additional 3,419,577 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Accenture by 2,782.1% in the 1st quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,445,281 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $450,985,000 after buying an additional 1,395,135 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 23.5% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,823,228 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $880,960,000 after acquiring an additional 537,223 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 340.7% during the 1st quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 464,864 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $145,056,000 after purchasing an additional 359,389 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $245.39 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The firm has a market cap of $153.69 billion, a PE ratio of 20.20, a PEG ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 1.28. Accenture PLC has a 1-year low of $229.40 and a 1-year high of $398.35. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $249.57 and a 200 day moving average price of $283.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.98 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $17.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.34 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.45% and a net margin of 11.02%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.66 EPS. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. Research analysts predict that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Investors of record on Friday, October 10th will be given a $1.63 dividend. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. This represents a $6.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 10th. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.72%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Rothschild Redb lowered Accenture from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. Wolfe Research reduced their target price on Accenture from $290.00 to $285.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, September 23rd. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $360.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. Mizuho dropped their target price on Accenture from $348.00 to $309.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, September 29th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Accenture in a report on Saturday, September 27th. 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 issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $300.22.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total value of $635,794.95. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 8,109 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,290,387.05. This trade represents a 21.73% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $1,482,002.66. This represents a 3.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 2,954 shares of company stock worth $834,280 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

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.