Principal Securities Inc. Acquires 3,160 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Principal Securities Inc. grew its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 24.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 16,300 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after buying an additional 3,160 shares during the period. Principal Securities Inc.'s holdings in Accenture were worth $5,734,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Creative Planning boosted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 5.5% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 247,724 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $87,566,000 after purchasing an additional 12,993 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB boosted its stake in Accenture by 16.6% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,551,679 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $901,967,000 after buying an additional 363,401 shares in the last quarter. Net Worth Advisory Group bought a new position in Accenture during the third quarter valued at approximately $630,000. Alta Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at $275,000. Finally, AA Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter valued at $270,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total transaction of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 5,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. This represents a 6.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total transaction of $91,514.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 8,915 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,516,610.90. This represents a 2.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Stock Performance

Accenture stock traded down $5.16 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $385.06. The stock had a trading volume of 2,251,805 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,697,309. 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 company has a market capitalization of $240.97 billion, a PE ratio of 32.30, a P/E/G ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 1.24. The firm's fifty day moving average is $366.87 and its two-hundred day moving average is $355.57.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.27 EPS. The company's revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on ACN. StockNews.com raised Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. BNP Paribas cut Accenture from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $375.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Robert W. Baird reiterated a "neutral" rating and issued a $370.00 price target on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $387.22.

Accenture Company 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.