Hunter Associates Investment Management LLC Has $6.82 Million Position in Accenture PLC $ACN

Hunter Associates Investment Management LLC reduced its position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 9.6% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 22,831 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 2,418 shares during the quarter. Accenture accounts for about 1.0% of Hunter Associates Investment Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 21st biggest holding. Hunter Associates Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $6,824,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in Accenture by 63.9% during the first 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 purchasing an additional 3,490,569 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Accenture by 5.7% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 63,814,234 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $19,912,594,000 after purchasing an additional 3,419,577 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Accenture by 2,782.1% during the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,445,281 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $450,985,000 after purchasing an additional 1,395,135 shares during the last quarter. McElhenny Sheffield Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the second quarter valued at approximately $308,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its position 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 valued at $880,960,000 after buying an additional 537,223 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. TD Cowen cut their price objective on Accenture from $313.00 to $295.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Dbs Bank raised Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 27th. Hsbc Global Res raised Accenture to a “moderate sell” rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. HSBC dropped their price target on Accenture from $240.00 to $215.00 in a report on Friday, September 26th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, September 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $294.25.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, insider Manish Sharma sold 6,902 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.01, for a total transaction of $1,725,569.02. Following the sale, the insider owned 1,860 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $465,018.60. This trade represents a 78.77% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $253.40, for a total value of $2,280,600.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 14,516 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,678,354.40. This trade represents a 38.27% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 27,402 shares of company stock valued at $6,875,974 in the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Trading Up 0.5%

Shares of ACN opened at $250.44 on Monday. Accenture PLC has a 52-week low of $229.40 and a 52-week high of $398.35. The business’s fifty day moving average is $246.87 and its 200-day moving average is $275.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a current ratio of 1.42. The firm has a market cap of $164.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.61, a PEG ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.28.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.98 by $0.05. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.45% and a net margin of 11.02%.The company had revenue of $17.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.34 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.66 EPS. The company’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. Equities analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 10th will be paid a $1.63 dividend. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.6%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 10th. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is 53.66%.

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.