Accenture (ACN) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

Accenture (ACN) closed the most recent trading day at $224.78, moving +0.36% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500’s 0.77% gain on the day. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.44%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 1.49%.

Prior to today’s trading, shares of the consulting company had gained 3.83% over the past month. This has traded in line with the Business Services sector and lagged the S&P 500’s gain of 5.03% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from ACN as it approaches its next earnings release. On that day, ACN is projected to report earnings of $1.73 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 0.57%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $10.89 billion, down 1.52% from the year-ago period.

ACN’s full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $7.63 per share and revenue of $44.38 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +3.67% and +2.7%, respectively.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for ACN. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company’s business and profitability.

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. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant within the past month. ACN is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Investors should also note ACN’s current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 29.35. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 22.77, which means ACN is trading at a premium to the group.

We can also see that ACN currently has a PEG ratio of 2.94. 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 1.66 at yesterday’s closing price.

The Consulting Services industry is part of the Business Services sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 200, which puts it in the bottom 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.

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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