Yahoo Finance Accenture (ACN) Gains As Market Dips: What You Should Know
Accenture (ACN) closed at $287.02 in the latest trading session, marking a +0.18% move from the prior day. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.39%. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 0.14%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 0.1%.
Prior to today's trading, shares of the consulting company had gained 6.28% over the past month. This has lagged the Business Services sector's gain of 6.69% and the S&P 500's gain of 6.77% in that time.
Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Accenture as it approaches its next earnings report date. In that report, analysts expect Accenture to post earnings of $2.91 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 4.68%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $15.58 billion, up 4.12% from the year-ago period.
ACN's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $11.34 per share and revenue of $64.24 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +5.88% and +4.3%, respectively.
Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Accenture should also be noted by investors. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.
Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.
Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant. Accenture currently has a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell).
In terms of valuation, Accenture is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 25.26. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 23.1, which means Accenture is trading at a premium to the group.
We can also see that ACN currently has a PEG ratio of 2.66. 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. ACN's industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.41 as of yesterday's close.
The Consulting Services industry is part of the Business Services sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 47, which puts it in the top 19% 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.
To follow ACN in the coming trading sessions, be sure to utilize Zacks.com.
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Accenture PLC (ACN) : Free Stock Analysis Report
