Yahoo Finance Accenture (ACN) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know
Accenture (ACN) closed the most recent trading day at $265.65, moving -0.32% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500's 1.85% gain on the day. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 1.65%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 13.7%.
Prior to today's trading, shares of the consulting company had lost 5.4% over the past month. This has lagged the Business Services sector's loss of 1.45% and the S&P 500's loss of 0.87% in that time.
Investors will be hoping for strength from Accenture as it approaches its next earnings release, which is expected to be June 22, 2023. The company is expected to report EPS of $2.94, up 5.38% from the prior-year quarter. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue 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. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.
Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.
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. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.02% lower. Accenture is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Accenture has a Forward P/E ratio of 23.03 right now. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 20.87, which means Accenture is trading at a premium to the group.
We can also see that ACN currently has a PEG ratio of 2.42. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Consulting Services industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.48 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 45, which puts it in the top 18% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. 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
