Accenture (ACN) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know
In the latest trading session, Accenture (ACN) closed at $320.31, marking a +1.12% move from the previous day. This change outpaced the S&P 500's 0.6% gain on the day.
Prior to today's trading, shares of the consulting company had gained 2.31% over the past month. This has outpaced the Business Services sector's loss of 2.85% and the S&P 500's gain of 1.21% in that time.
ACN will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release, which is expected to be September 23, 2021. On that day, ACN is projected to report earnings of $2.19 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 28.82%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $13.48 billion, up 24.42% from the year-ago period.
Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $8.79 per share and revenue of $50.58 billion. These totals would mark changes of +17.83% and +14.1%, respectively, from last year.
Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for ACN. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.
Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. 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.
The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection remained stagnant. ACN is currently a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
Investors should also note ACN's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 36.03. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 22.12, which means ACN is trading at a premium to the group.
It is also worth noting that ACN currently has a PEG ratio of 3.6. 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 1.37 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 55, which puts it in the top 22% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual 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.
Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.
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