Prudential Financial Inc. Acquires 600 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Prudential Financial Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 0.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 117,072 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 600 shares during the quarter. Prudential Financial Inc.’s holdings in Accenture were worth $41,185,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in Accenture during the third quarter valued at about $25,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 62.2% during the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 73 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the period. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 64.2% during the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 87 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the period. Finally, Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth approximately $34,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 17th. UBS Group cut their target price on Accenture from $455.00 to $387.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on Accenture from $425.00 to $370.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $378.91.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total value of $242,750.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 8,674 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,073,892.12. This represents a 7.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total transaction of $3,468,574.71. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares in the company, valued at $4,677,625.26. This trade represents a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN stock opened at $308.97 on Wednesday. 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 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $398.35. The stock has a market cap of $193.35 billion, a PE ratio of 25.92, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $357.53 and a 200 day moving average price of $356.88.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The firm had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.64 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.77 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.92%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 48.89%.

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.