Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Announces Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.01 EPS

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01, Briefing.com reports. Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.37 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.71 earnings per share. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Accenture updated its Q1 2025 guidance to EPS and its FY 2025 guidance to 12.550-12.910 EPS.

Accenture Trading Down 1.7 %

ACN stock traded down $6.11 during trading on Friday, hitting $349.70. 2,575,382 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,782,510. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $333.92 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $321.23. The stock has a market capitalization of $219.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.02, a PEG ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.69%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.25%.

Accenture announced that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACN has been the topic of several recent research reports. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. TD Cowen boosted their target price on Accenture from $293.00 to $321.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Wedbush cut their price target on Accenture from $400.00 to $350.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. StockNews.com upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $382.00 to $300.00 in a report on Wednesday, June 26th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $364.64.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In other news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total value of $472,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 38,570 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,149,550. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total transaction of $472,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 38,570 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,149,550. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total transaction of $927,660.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 40,070 shares in the company, valued at $12,390,445.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Accenture Company Profile

Accenture plc, a professional services company, provides strategy and consulting, industry X, song, and technology and operation services worldwide. The company offers application services, including agile transformation, DevOps, application modernization, enterprise architecture, software and quality engineering, data management; intelligent automation comprising robotic process automation, natural language processing, and virtual agents; and application management services, as well as software engineering services; strategy and consulting services; data and analytics strategy, data discovery and augmentation, data management and beyond, data democratization, and industrialized solutions comprising turnkey analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions; metaverse; and sustainability services.