Yahoo Finance Accenture (ACN) Stock Moves -0.21%: What You Should Know
Accenture (ACN) closed the most recent trading day at $317.68, moving -0.21% from the previous trading session. This change was narrower than the S&P 500's 0.54% loss on the day.
Prior to today's trading, shares of the consulting company had gained 6.12% over the past month. This has outpaced the Business Services sector's loss of 15.47% and the S&P 500's gain of 3.05% in that time.
Wall Street will be looking for positivity from ACN as it approaches its next earnings report date. The company is expected to report EPS of $2.19, up 28.82% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $13.48 billion, up 24.42% from the prior-year quarter.
For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $8.79 per share and revenue of $50.58 billion, which would represent changes of +17.83% and +14.1%, respectively, from the prior year.
Investors should also note any 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.
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. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant. ACN currently has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).
Looking at its valuation, ACN is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 36.21. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 22.6, so we one might conclude that ACN is trading at a premium comparatively.
Also, we should mention that ACN has a PEG ratio of 3.62. 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 1.4 at yesterday's closing price.
The Consulting Services industry is part of the Business Services sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 91, putting it in the top 36% 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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