Plato Investment Management Ltd Raises Stake in Accenture PLC $ACN

Plato Investment Management Ltd lifted its position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 7.1% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 17,806 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,185 shares during the quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd’s holdings in Accenture were worth $5,303,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of ACN. Kelly Lawrence W & Associates Inc. CA purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the first quarter worth about $31,000. RMG Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the second quarter worth approximately $33,000. WPG Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the first quarter worth approximately $42,000. Cheviot Value Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the first quarter worth approximately $43,000. Finally, Fiduciary Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the first quarter worth approximately $45,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $302.00 to $290.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $330.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 26th. BNP Paribas Exane reduced their price target 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. Guggenheim reduced their price target on shares of Accenture from $305.00 to $285.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 26th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Accenture in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Accenture has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $294.25.

Accenture Trading Up 0.5%

ACN opened at $250.44 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $164.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.61, a P/E/G ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.28. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $246.87 and its 200-day moving average is $276.03. Accenture PLC has a 52-week low of $229.40 and a 52-week high of $398.35. 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) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.98 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $17.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.34 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.02% and a return on equity of 26.45%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.66 earnings per share. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. Analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.63 per share. 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 2.6%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 53.66%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the company’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 of the company’s stock, valued at $3,678,354.40. This represents a 38.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.47, for a total transaction of $623,675.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,390 shares in the company, valued at $346,763.30. This represents a 64.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 27,402 shares of company stock worth $6,875,974 over the last 90 days. Company 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.