What Makes Accenture (ACN) an Investment Bet?

Artisan Partners, an investment management company, released its “Artisan Value Fund” third-quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The equity market rally persisted in the third quarter as investors ignored tariffs, buoyed by strong corporate earnings, rising AI investment, and prospects of economic support from US fiscal policy and lower interest rates. Against this backdrop, the fund’s Investor Class ARTLX, Advisor Class APDLX, and Institutional Class APHLX returned 0.83%, 0.91%, and 0.90%, respectively, in the third quarter compared to a 5.33% return for the Russell 1000 Value Index. In addition, you can check the top 5 holdings of the fund to know its best picks in 2025.

In its third-quarter 2025 investor letter, Artisan Value Fund highlighted stocks such as Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN). Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) is a professional services company that provides management consulting, technology, and outsourcing services. The one-month return of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) was 5.31%, and its shares lost 23.09% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On December 26, 2025, Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) stock closed at $271.09 per share, with a market capitalization of $166.8 billion.

Artisan Value Fund stated the following regarding Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in its third quarter 2025 investor letter:

“Though the rally’s tide lifted most boats, we’re still finding our share of unloved and out-of-favor businesses. In Q3, we made three new purchases: Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN), Salesforce and Elevance Health. Like all technological innovations, AI should create both winners and losers. A number of incumbent IT services and software businesses, including Accenture and Salesforce, are seen as potential “AI losers” that are at risk of being disrupted by AI. While AI will drive change, the fears that AI will disrupt companies with wide moats like Accenture and Salesforce seem overblown. Accenture provides consulting and business process outsourcing services to corporate clients to help them stay on the leading edge of change via technology. Growth for these companies has slowed in 2025, which has spooked investors, but this appears due to general slowing macro conditions, among other factors, rather than due to AI, which should take years to play out. Both companies meet our margin of safety criteria as they are strong, consistent generators of free cash flow, have solid balance sheets and sell at reasonable valuations.”

Accenture’s (ACN) Oversold Status May Offer a Smart Entry Point for Dividend Investors

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 66 hedge fund portfolios held Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) at the end of the third quarter, which was 65 in the previous quarter. In the first quarter of fiscal 2026, Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) reported revenues of $18.7 billion, reflecting a 5% increase in in local currency. While we acknowledge the risk and potential of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.

In another article, we covered Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) and shared the list of most undervalued tech giants to buy according to hedge funds. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q3 2025 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.