Yahoo Finance Accenture (ACN) Gains As Market Dips: What You Should Know
In the latest trading session, Accenture (ACN) closed at $272.27, marking a +1.26% move from the previous day. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.17%. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 0.66%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 6.09%.
Prior to today's trading, shares of the consulting company had lost 5.24% over the past month. This has lagged the Business Services sector's gain of 1.45% and the S&P 500's gain of 0.75% in that time.
Accenture will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release, which is expected to be June 22, 2023. On that day, Accenture is projected to report earnings of $2.94 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 5.38%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $16.45 billion, up 1.82% from the year-ago period.
For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $11.57 per share and revenue of $64.33 billion, which would represent changes of +8.03% and +4.44%, respectively, from the prior year.
Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Accenture. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.
Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant within the past month. Accenture currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
Digging into valuation, Accenture currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 23.24. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 21.45, so we one might conclude that Accenture is trading at a premium comparatively.
Investors should also note that ACN has a PEG ratio of 2.45 right now. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. The Consulting Services was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.53 at yesterday's closing price.
The Consulting Services industry is part of the Business Services sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 75, putting it in the top 30% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.
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Accenture PLC (ACN) : Free Stock Analysis Report
