Accenture (ACN) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know
Accenture (ACN) closed at $194.95 in the latest trading session, marking a +0.41% move from the prior day. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.26%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.13%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.4%.
Heading into today, shares of the consulting company had lost 0.52% over the past month, lagging the Business Services sector's loss of 0.37% and the S&P 500's gain of 3.92% in that time.
ACN will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release, which is expected to be September 26, 2019. In that report, analysts expect ACN to post earnings of $1.71 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 8.23%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $11.08 billion, up 9.17% from the prior-year quarter.
Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for ACN. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.
Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an 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 has moved 0.27% lower. ACN currently has a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell).
Looking at its valuation, ACN is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 24.43. This valuation marks a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 19.33.
Meanwhile, ACN's PEG ratio is currently 2.36. 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 1.6 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 72, which puts it in the top 29% 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.
Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.
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Accenture PLC (ACN) : Free Stock Analysis Report
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