Principal Financial Group Inc. Has $275.99 Million Stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Principal Financial Group Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 1.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 784,533 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 8,698 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned approximately 0.13% of Accenture worth $275,991,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in Accenture during the third quarter worth approximately $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Accenture during the third quarter worth approximately $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC increased its position in Accenture by 64.2% during the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC acquired a new position in Accenture during the fourth quarter worth approximately $34,000. Finally, Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 607.1% during the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on ACN. StockNews.com upgraded Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Wolfe Research upgraded Accenture from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $425.00 price objective for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, BNP Paribas cut Accenture from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $375.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Accenture presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $387.22.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total transaction of $242,750.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 8,674 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,073,892.12. This represents a 7.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,149 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN traded down $20.49 on Friday, hitting $364.35. 3,747,836 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,728,130. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $367.48 and a 200-day moving average of $356.12. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Accenture plc has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $398.35. The stock has a market cap of $228.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.57, a P/E/G ratio of 3.46 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.27 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

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.