Magnetar Financial LLC Acquires New Holdings in Accenture PLC $ACN

Magnetar Financial LLC bought a new stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 9,337 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,791,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in ACN. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Accenture by 2.1% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 65,129,782 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $19,466,641,000 after purchasing an additional 1,315,548 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.1% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,042,843 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,182,331,000 after buying an additional 147,931 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.6% in the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 8,998,826 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,689,659,000 after buying an additional 56,108 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake 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 buying an additional 3,490,569 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sanders Capital LLC bought a new stake in Accenture in the second quarter worth about $2,637,640,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the topic of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $325.00 to $271.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 9th. Mizuho decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $348.00 to $309.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, September 29th. Robert W. Baird cut 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. Evercore ISI set a $280.00 target price on Accenture in a report on Thursday, September 25th. Finally, HSBC cut their target price on Accenture from $240.00 to $215.00 in a research report on Friday, September 26th. One investment 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 issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $294.25.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.57, for a total transaction of $2,246,130.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 23,516 shares in the company, valued at $5,868,888.12. The trade was a 27.68% decrease in their position. The transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,390 shares in the company, valued at $346,763.30. This trade represents a 64.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 33,319 shares of company stock valued at $8,335,225. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $251.87 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $244.30 and its two-hundred day moving average is $270.93. The company has a market cap of $165.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.28. Accenture PLC has a 12-month low of $229.40 and a 12-month 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 issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.98 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $17.60 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.34 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.45% and a net margin of 11.02%.Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.66 earnings per share. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at EPS. Equities analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 10th were given a $1.63 dividend. This represents a $6.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.6%. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 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.