Freedom Investment Management Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in Accenture PLC $ACN

Freedom Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 4.5% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 8,731 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 378 shares during the period. Freedom Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $2,610,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Truist Financial Corp grew its stake in Accenture by 7.0% in the 2nd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 436,202 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $130,376,000 after acquiring an additional 28,685 shares during the period. Redwood Investments LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 6.2% in the 1st quarter. Redwood Investments LLC now owns 22,087 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $6,892,000 after acquiring an additional 1,287 shares during the period. Lipe & Dalton grew its stake in Accenture by 2,087.4% in the 1st quarter. Lipe & Dalton now owns 5,031 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,570,000 after acquiring an additional 4,801 shares during the period. PDS Planning Inc grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 34.7% during the 2nd quarter. PDS Planning Inc now owns 4,055 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,212,000 after buying an additional 1,044 shares during the period. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 6.4% during the 2nd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 70,887 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $21,187,000 after buying an additional 4,281 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of ACN stock opened at $249.14 on Thursday. Accenture PLC has a 12 month low of $229.40 and a 12 month high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.42 and a quick ratio of 1.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $164.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.51, a P/E/G ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.28. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $247.18 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $278.05.

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

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 10th will be issued a $1.63 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 10th. This represents a $6.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.6%. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 53.66%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACN has been the subject of several research reports. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $315.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, September 24th. Citigroup initiated coverage on shares of Accenture in a research note on Wednesday. They set a “neutral” rating and a $266.00 price objective for the company. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $315.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, September 16th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price objective 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. Finally, Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $330.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $297.48.

About Accenture

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.