Machina Capital S.A.S. Reduces Stake in Accenture PLC $ACN

Machina Capital S.A.S. trimmed its position in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 47.6% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 2,760 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 2,510 shares during the quarter. Machina Capital S.A.S.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $825,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Kelly Lawrence W & Associates Inc. CA purchased a new position in Accenture during the 1st quarter valued at about $31,000. RMG Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the second quarter valued at approximately $33,000. WPG Advisers LLC purchased a new position in shares of Accenture during the 1st quarter worth approximately $42,000. Cheviot Value Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture during the 1st quarter worth approximately $43,000. Finally, Fiduciary Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $45,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, 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 transaction, the chief executive officer owned 14,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,678,354.40. This trade represents a 38.27% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.47, for a total transaction of $623,675.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,390 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $346,763.30. This trade represents a 64.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 27,402 shares of company stock valued at $6,875,974 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Down 0.7%

Shares of ACN opened at $248.37 on Tuesday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $246.71 and its 200 day simple moving average is $275.73. Accenture PLC has a twelve month low of $229.40 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $163.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.28.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.98 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $17.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.34 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.45% and a net margin of 11.02%.The firm’s revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior 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. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Shareholders 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.6%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 53.66%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the subject of several analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their target price on shares of Accenture from $260.00 to $235.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 26th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $315.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, September 24th. HSBC lowered their target price on shares of Accenture from $240.00 to $215.00 in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their price target on Accenture from $372.00 to $285.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $330.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, September 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $294.25.

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.