HMS Capital Management LLC Lowers Position in Accenture PLC $ACN

HMS Capital Management LLC cut its stake in Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 4,914 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 88 shares during the period. HMS Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,469,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth about $30,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth about $31,000. Kelly Lawrence W & Associates Inc. CA purchased a new stake in Accenture in the first quarter worth about $31,000. Inlight Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the first quarter worth about $32,000. Finally, Capital A Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the fourth quarter worth about $34,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. Rothschild & Co Redburn downgraded Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $250.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on Accenture from $325.00 to $271.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 9th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $395.00 price target (up previously from $390.00) on shares of Accenture in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of Accenture from $334.00 to $302.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 20th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $355.00 to $325.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $346.92.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Mauro Macchi sold 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $141,170.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,283 shares in the company, valued at $644,582.22. This trade represents a 17.97% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total value of $57,315.02. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 5,249 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,482,002.66. This trade represents a 3.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 2,954 shares of company stock valued at $834,280 in the last ninety days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN opened at $238.55 on Friday. Accenture PLC has a twelve month low of $236.67 and a twelve month high of $398.35. The firm has a market cap of $149.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.99, a PEG ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a 50 day moving average of $263.21 and a 200 day moving average of $293.19. The company has a quick ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, June 20th. The information technology services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.32 by $0.17. Accenture had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 26.55%. The company had revenue of $17.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.13 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. Accenture has set its Q4 2025 guidance at EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 12.770-12.890 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Accenture PLC will post 12.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.